


chaos looks good on you

by Eremit



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, DEArtfest, Detroit Evolution Artfest (Detroit: Become Human), Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, M/M, Romance, Slow Burn, Sort Of, a lot of swearing, enemies to partners to friends to whatever, they are both dealing with emotions, they're going through all the stages
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:21:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 34,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24575989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eremit/pseuds/Eremit
Summary: Nines believed that people weren’t complicated.  They followed their routines, they boasted about their little achievements, they talked too much for their own good.Most of them were simply too predictable for Nines to find them interesting.It all started with Nines playing the predicting game around the precinct and failing.It all started with a challenge, but somewhere along the way the prize has changed.For better or for worse.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 41
Kudos: 239





	1. 01011001 01101111 01110101

Nines’ eyes moved around the precinct, tracing different movements, following familiar faces, but not lingering on anyone longer than necessary. Nothing out of ordinary.

It was 7:38 and the usual commotion caused by change of shifts has began.

Nines remained located at his desk, his eyes moving to the book in front of him. The busting and rustling around him has been intensifying with every minute and he was tempted to turn off his hearing device completely. Technically, he was still off duty. In the end, he decided against it, just in case of something worth listening would happened. Even thought, the probability of that totaled to merely 7%.

The thing was, Nines didn’t find people to be very interesting.

Even before his deviancy, they weren’t his concern. He was programmed to track deviants and his contact with humans was supposed to be limited to necessary minimum. So he spent first weeks of being a deviant on “finding himself”, as Connor had put it and it has been a real challenge. He was still going through the process of finding things that interest him. His predecessor went on a long speech about the importance of hobbies, finding ways to fulfill his needs and awaken his wants.

And of course, Nines had various wants and needs, and he was even able to develop some hobbies, but people just weren’t on his list of interest.

Most of them were simply too predictable for Nines to find them interesting. There were certain aspects and characteristic that he found entertaining in a person, but it was nothing that could make him want to look forward to the next meeting. He also wouldn’t say that he was deliberately avoiding any social situations. He wouldn’t walk away in the middle of the conversation, just because he found them boring, like Connor’s stories about curly fries. No, it was a specialty of one-week into deviancy Nines. The two - months into deviancy Nines knew that you should just nod and wait for the other person to walk away. Or looked busy enough for others to not approach you in the first place.

Reading the book, seemed to be the most successful solution.

The book was a light reading about the most gruesome war crimes, so it still enable Nines to remain attentive to activities around the precinct. After two months of working here, his predictions concerning different officers reached to 98% accuracy.

For example, Officer Chen would be ending her shift in 17 minutes. Taking into account that it was uneventful night and she still had a bounce in her step, she would be feeling good enough to prepare her breakfast at home. In that moment she must be scrolling through different recipes of the second most popular culinary website.

There was 14% probability, she would choose mini waffles with hazelnuts sprinkles, 27% for savory crepes and 59% it would be shakshuka.

In 2 minutes, she would be walking away from her desk and heading towards the break room with an armful of mugs and Officer Miller right behind her. He would already have his coat on and his gym bag would be tossed between his hands, precisely 13 times, as he would be waiting for Officer Chen to finish washing her mugs. On the more stressful day, Officer Miller would gather the mugs by himself and wash them for Officer Chen, but because today’s shift wasn’t compelling at all, Officer Chen would shoo him away.

He also knew that before 7:50, Connor and Lieutenant Anderson would be walking through the main entrance. Connor’s left mouth corner would go up after reaching their floor and before he would start indulging himself in small talk with the rest of the people around the precinct, he would scan the area. As there was only one person in the holding cell and no officer had been harmed during night shift, his scan would last 32 seconds and his smile wouldn’t withered.

It was still a 20 seconds longer than Nines needed to scan their floor.

He heard clucking of Officer Chen’s mugs and squeak of Officer Miller’s shoes, just as he predicted. Everything so predictable and consistent –

“Yo, tin can.”

Ah, and there he was. A little particle of chaos.

“Detective,” Nines answered and with one swift move closed the book in front of him. As he watched his partner coming from behind his back and heading towards his desk, hands tempering with a lid of his cup of coffee, Nines took a moment to analyze his words.

He was already familiar with a nickname “tin can”, usually accompanied with a sneer or bite, but everyday a malice behind the nickname was slowly shifting into something more… subtle.

However, _yo._

“Yo” made him wonder. During his two months of working around the precinct, he never heard Reed welcoming him with “Yo”. It wasn’t something that he heard the detective saying at all, actually. He thought about adding the word to his own everyday’s vocabulary, but there was a doze of familiarity and nonchalant to the word and frankly, he wasn’t sure he would be able to pull it off.

“You are early,” Nines added, running a quick scan over his partner.

It was the first time that Detective Reed came to work at 7:46. Just when Nines thought that finally he was able to narrow Gavin’s coming hours between 7:55 and 8:12, his partner decided to do something illogical like that.

For a moment Nines thought that maybe, Reed wasn’t able to sleep at night, which led to the early morning, but after a quick scan, it was obvious that detective had at least 6 hours of sleep and from the way his hair was curling at the nape he had time to take a shower AND stopped at the bakery for a breakfast.

Reed shot him a smirk over the brim of his coffee cup.

“Surprised?” Gavin asked, his eyes quickly moving to Nines’ temple.

Indeed, he was surprise. But part of him didn’t want to give Reed a satisfaction of reading him so well.

“Yes, I’m surprised you finally manage to come to work on time, Detective.”

It was 96% chance that Gavin would answer back, as Reed liked to have the last word, but again, he was surprised when other man just simple huffed and went back to sipping his coffee.

His lips twisted into a small smirk.

Interesting.

He heard the shuffling behind him and familiar sound of the elevator door opening.

“Good morning, Officer Chen. Officer Miller.”

7:49. As predicted.

“Oh, hi Connor! How’s your morning?”

10…

11…

“Very good. Thank you for asking, Officer Miller. How’s the night shift?”

He asked, but he’s already scanned the place.

“Boring, nothing happened. But check his out, I’m trying the new recipe for breakfast. I’ll be making shakshuka!”

“Oh, it looks delicious. Let me know, if it’s good, so I could – “

Making it for Lieutenant Anderson, for the next Meatless Monday.

“Oh, for sure!”

12…

13…

The last mug made its way into the cupboard and the rustle of the gym bag stopped. Connor was already moving to Officer Wilson, who was chatting with mildly interested Lieutenant Anderson by the elevator.

Nothing out of ordinary.

So unexciting.

“Shit!” Gavin scowled, his hands gripping at his shirt. “Tina! Toss me the paper towel!”

“Maybe “hi” or “hello, Tina, you look nice today” would be better way to greet a friend, asshole!”

“Hi, Tina, toss me the fucking towel!”

Nines moved his eyes toward his partner frowning at the small puddle of coffee on his desk, then switched to the break room entrance, where Officer Miller was still leaning on the doorframe. Officer Chen was making a big bowl of paper towels and Officer Miller let out a soft laugh, looking at his friend who aimed the ball at Reed’s head. Just when the paper ball flew through the precinct, the sport bag was tossed 14th and 15th time.

Nines could try to predict how the rest of the day would go with the 98% of accuracy, but he knew that as long as Gavin was involved, nothing was out of the table. It didn’t matter which outcome was logically the most plausible for Reed, because very rarely Nines was able to actually predict correctly. Quickly, he learnt that the most logical answer wasn’t always the one that Gavin chose. Other factors seemed to be more essential during making his decisions, but it also didn’t follow any specific rule.

As almost all the detective decisions were random. And Nines found that unpredictability challenging.

In most cases, it wasn’t hard to find patterns in human’s behavior as repetitiveness of actions and developing habits gave them the sense of familiarity. Also, he found it rather effortless to learn different things about them, because most people didn’t seem to need any push to talk about themselves and their interests.

“Fucking plastic lids, that shit is useless,” Nines picked up his partners’ mumbling as detective Reed viscously threw a bend piece of plastic and the soaked paper towels to the bins on his left.

Unfortunately, the only person that Nines actually wanted to learn about was the one that didn’t talk about themselves at all. His partner talked a lot, however he was rather skillfully hiding any personal information.

MISSION ADDED: GET TO KNOW DETECTIVE GAVIN REED

POTENTIAL OUTCOME: _@#error@#$_

“Maybe if you put the lid correctly, it wouldn’t spill, Detective.”

“Oh, fuck off, Nines. I know how to put a fucking lid on the cup!”

INFORMATION ADDED IN THE FOLDER GAVIN REED : MAY NOT KNOW HOW TO PUT A LID ON A COFFEE CUP.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so it’s begin!  
> It’s my first work in this fandom and I hope I’ll manage to do those two assholes justice. Every chapter will have a theme, it’s implied and it helps get the development going, but it’s not the main focus of the story.  
> Also, the story is finished, it just need a lot of polishing. English in not my first language, so the struggle is real.


	2. One of them is not like the other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even though, his partner’s stupidity wasn’t the only cause of his bad mood (fuck you, Prinston), he still let it all out on Nines.  
> Was it fair? No. Was Gavin going to apologize? Fuck no. 
> 
> Because he still couldn’t wrap his mind around Nines’ behavior.

Gavin was rolling his arm, his shoulder popping in its socket.

It was past noon and he was coming back to the precinct from the court.

He fucking knew that getting involved into that messy Collins’ case would be a massive drag. The moment, he laid his eyes on that disgusting fuckboy, who thought that he’d weaseled his way out of hit and run accident, Gavin knew that the lawsuit would be dragging for eternity. Because of course, he was the type of little prick with “my father will hear about this” attitude and Gavin wanted nothing more to see that bitch behind the bars.

And the audacity of that mother fucking attorney who assessed their evidences as half-assed! That fucking guy was half-assed, that bitch!

He hated going to courts in general, but that case had everything Gavin despised. Stuck-up lawyers, rich pricks and fuckboys. He really couldn’t stand fuckboys.

The door to the precinct opened and he made his way towards the elevator. He heard from Collins that Fowler was handing cases during morning briefing and there was some hot homicide case that Gavin wanted his hands on. Since he was stuck in the court, looking at the motherfucking fuck boy Prinston, he shot a quick text to Nines, to call dips on the homicide case.

Because that’s what he needed right now. Good case to push away the human disappointment called Prinston out of his mind.

The anger was still sizzling under his skin, when he stepped out of the elevator. With a quick swept around the precinct, he was able to locate Nines at his desk, his eyes stuck on the screen.

And there it was, new juicy file laying right next to android’s hand.

Thank fuck for that, because Gavin didn’t feel like running around the precinct looking for the RK, or even worse, discover that Nines went to the crime scene without him.

Reed moved towards his desk, his hands in the pockets, anger slowly fading.

“ _Obfuscate?_ ” Gavin said, peeking from behind Nines’ shoulder and reading from the screen. “Is it a police report or a fucking poem?”

The android, of course, didn’t flinch, but the yellow spin of his led has been satisfactory enough.

“Not everyone use the vocabulary of 4th graders to complete their reports, Detective.”

That little bitch. Gavin moved away from his partner with a small smirk, snatching the case file on the way to his desk.

“Oh, so we are starting our day with being dicks,” Gavin answered. “ Quite _ferocious._ ”

He plumped down on his chair, his feet automatically moving to rest on the table. He caught Nines’ steel- blue eyes just for a second, before android was staring back at the screen.

“Congratulation, detective, you were promoted to sixth grade,” Nines announced in his monotone voice, before changing the subject. “We were appointed with a new case.”

“No shit, I’ve heard from Collins about that homicides, and let me tell you – “

“It is not a homicide.”

And like that, the anger was back.

“What the fuck, Nines?!” he shouted, his leg hitting the ground. “I told you to call dibs on that case!”

“I understand that you found the other case interesting, however, I believe that this assignment would be more compelling.”

More compelling than triple homicide in the cabin, with victims drained off blood? He didn’t fucking thinks so!

But that’s what he get after giving a simple task to the goddamn android.

His hands bawled into fists, crushing the file, he’d picked up earlier. 

“Then what the fuck is it?!” he hissed through his teeth. It’s better be a quadruple homicide or massive drag bust, because after all that fuckery in the court, he needed something to occupy his mind, to not to sit idly on his ass and dwell, something with action and danger, something –

“Police received an anonymous tip about Roderick Sladek, the prime suspect in android trafficking, being spotted around one of the flats downtown. Considering the fragile credibility of the statement and the cautious approach toward the suspect, the desirable solution for the case would be – “

“Don’t you fucking said it,” Gavin growled, leaning over his desk. Because there was no way, that Gavin would be a part of -

“A stakeout.”

His fists collided with his desk, sending the case file flying to the ground as well as few items from the desktop. He knew that people were watching, he was fucking aware of the stares and sudden silence around them, but Gavin was seeing red. He didn’t know when he’d stood up, but he was now leaning over his table and towering over, _oh so maddeningly_ unmoved partner.

“You,” he spat, finger pointed at blank face, “You traded a homicide for a stakeout?! What the fuck is wrong with you?! I knew you were defective! Run a fucking check up, Alexa!”

Nines blinked at him, his face still blank, but the mad red of his led was speaking louder than any words.

Gavin couldn’t be more pleased with himself.

Because right now, he regretted he had a partner. He regretted having a fucking android, who couldn’t even follow a simple task and pick a right case. They could be now solving the best fucking case, but no, the deviancy must have kicked in, and look at that little rebel, he must be fucking delighted that he made an impulsive, stupid human so mad.

“My system is running at its best, but thank you for your concern, Detective.” Blue , the goddamn led was blue now. “ And I apologize for my ability to recognize the importance of the case, even though it may not call for acting upon your detective fantasy.”

That fucking asshole. Gavin pushed himself away from the table, his fists bawling at his sides. He needed to get away from those piercing, lifeless eyes, because he swore, if that motherfucker kept staring at him like that, he would leaped on the other side of the table and strangled him.

“Fuck that case,” he hissed, stepping to the side, the beige folder crumbled under his shoes. “And fuck you.”

And Gavin was gone from his desk, shoving past his coworkers, heading somewhere – _anywhere_ as far as possible from that motherfucking android.

Two hours later, Gavin was shifting in the car seat, some trash digging into his ass, knees bumping into the gear stick. He knew that the DPD cars were shit, but the amount of garbage in the backseat, was something else. And what the fuck was with that smell?!

Of course, the most advanced android on planet was just sitting there, with his hands folded in his lap, eyes on the building. He didn’t look uncomfortable, but for sure, he looked out of place with his precious, white coat and polished shoes, his neatly combed hair nearly touching the roof. If Gavin had it in him, he would be laughing in that motherfucker’s face how ridiculous he looked.

But Gavin was still pissed. He blew off some steam in the gym, got rid of that awful green shirt, which was sticking to his back and driving him crazy and he stole some cigarettes from Tina’s emergency pack and the anger was slowly fading away. But it still wasn’t enough to get rid of it completely.

He knew that he made quite a scene in the precinct and even though his partner’s stupidity wasn’t the only cause of his bad mood _(fuck you, Prinston)_ , he still let it all out on Nines. 

Was it fair? No. Was Gavin going to apologize? Fuck no.

Because he still couldn’t wrap his mind around Nines’ behavior. It didn’t make sense to pick that case, when the triple homicide was definitely something straight up their alley. And Gavin really didn’t want to ask who got the case.

Fuck! It’s definitely Anderson and his lap dog!

Why the fuck Nines choose the stakeout? To piss Gavin off? Maybe. And it wasn’t even a good case! The whole fucking thing was sketchy from the start. Anonymous tip about the main suspect in the android trafficking? Bitch please! He was sure it was all a scam, and he would be staring at the wall for a whole damn week, when the real crimes would be happening around them.

Maybe someone that Nines knew had been a victim of Sladek. That would explain why the android chose something so stupid, if he had a personal involvement. But as much as Gavin knew, Nines wasn’t any social butterfly. He was mostly telepathy talking with his clone, sometimes with Anderson and apart from them, that was it.

Gavin could ask, but it required talking to that glorified Roomba, and he was doing just fine ignoring him since they stepped out of the precinct.

Fuck! He could use more emergency cigarettes.

The rest of the day was, surprise, surprise, uneventful. They didn’t talk, he wasn’t sure if Nines moved even once, Gavin was crashing all the records on his phone games and he was daring Nines to say anything. But the android was quiet.

Gavin was hungry and pissed. Nothing suspicious happened. Day one of the stakeout was over.

On the second day, Gavin came prepared. He had his lunch and a whole bag of protein pack trail mix, his old Nintendo Switch fully charged, the meanest, blackest coffee in the thermos bottle. When they approached the same old Opel Insignia from yesterday, Gavin beat the androids to the passenger seat. As hell, he would be sitting with his legs cramped in that little space for twelve hours.

They pulled up to the same parking spot, clear view of the entrance and clear view of the blue blinking led on android’s temple.

Gavin made it his mission to annoy the shit out of Nines.

He pushed his car seat as far as possible, nearly laying down, handful of nuts crushing under his teeth. One quick glance towards the led, still blue, damn it. But Gavin could wait, hell, he didn’t have anything to do other than wait.

They still didn’t talk and at that point Gavin couldn’t be the first one to break the silence. He could be a stubborn motherfucker, but a whole week of sitting in silence must have some kind of psychological impact on the person and as much as Nines would be able to stand it just fine, Gavin would go crazy.

So he decided to annoy Nines into talking to him first. And what’s the better way than to provoke a stickup android to speak up other than behaving as unprofessional as possible. And Gavin knew he would have a blast, especially since he wasn’t jeopardizing their mission, because there was no real mission!

One stupid comment from Nines. That’s all Gavin was asking for.

Three hours into stakeout, two cups of coffee and a lot of shenanigans in the Untitled Goose Game later, Nines was still silent. Gavin was sure that the loud goose honking mixed with his obnoxious mouth smacking would be enough to make his partner at least look at him. 

Despite knowing that this whole case was bullshit, he caught himself peeking from his hood few times and checking the flat. Just because there wasn’t anything other to look at. He definitely didn’t want to look at Nines.

After few more hours, when Gavin was seriously considering loud slurping ( even though he truly despised slurping), a miracle happened. The small screen of the navigation panel came to life, flashed few times and radio started playing.

That was… something.

Not exactly a reaction that Gavin was expecting, but okay, he could work with that.

Definitely, the high-pitched gibberish coming from Gavin’s games finally got to Nines. He counted that one as a success.

He found himself relaxing in his seat. Thank fuck that something happened, because his jaw hurt like hell from all that vicious snacking and his thumbs were cricking with every move.

He didn’t dare to look at Nines just yet, but he tipped his head back, listening to the most dreadful radio podcast ever. Then the songs kicked in, and damn, were they trash. Some new pop, alternative trap bullshit. Those few minutes of misery were dragging for eternity, but then older tunes played and damn, he didn’t heard that song in forever! Last time, it was in some club, few days after graduating from police academy. Tine was slaying on dance floor, as always, and they drunk so much – !

“Do you like it, Detective?” smooth voice dragged Gavin back from his mussing.

Nines wasn’t looking at him, still watching the entrance. His led was blinking blue.

“It’s radio music,” Gavin answered. “It’s whatever.”

They were talking. _Fucking finally_.

“If you don’t like it, I can change the station,” and before Gavin could say anything, Nines’ led turned yellow just for a second.

The new radio announcer was way too bubbly for Gavin’s liking and the songs sounded almost the same like the ones from the previous station.

They sat like that, listening to 15 years old boy singing about his oh so special love and the only thing that he could see was the motherfucking wall. It must be some kind of Gavin’s personal hell. Being trap with the android in a small space and not being able to do anything other than staring ahead, while the same awful pop song was playing on repeat.

“The announcer declared that this song was chosen by public voters as a number one on today’s playlist,” Nines’ stated in his monotonous voice, but then paused before adding. “It’s an… interesting choice.”

“Interesting my ass,” Gavin snorted. “It sounds the same like 4 other songs we’ve already heard.”

“Not exactly. The first riff of “Loveable girl” by Frank Dove is in A minor, however the riff in – “

“Oh cut the crap, Nines! It’s always the same pathetic tune sung by some pathetic teenage asshole, “ Gavin exclaimed, his arms crossed over his chest. “You are not gonna analyze the song about some underage bastard wanting to bang his friend’s girlfriend as it was a music masterpiece.”

“If you didn’t interrupt me, Detective, I would enlighten you why exactly that type of music is so appealing for many people.”

“Fuck other people! Is it “appealing” to _you_?

Gavin wasn’t prepare, when Nines, finally, looked at him. His brows were furrowed just a little bit and Gavin knew that this small facial expression meant that the android was actually thinking about something rather than shuffling through facts. Still, Gavin didn’t like how those creepy steel – blue eyes were looking right through him.

The song was still playing in the background, the small led turning, yellow, yellow… Blue.

“No,” Nines said and for a second Gavin forgot what they were even talking about. “ I don’t like this song.”

Gavin couldn’t help but let out a small snort at Nines’ serious tone, his hands uncurling around his biceps.

“Thank fuck for that.”

And like that, the 8 o’clock news kicked in and Gavin, instinctively, checked the time on his phone. Well, at least the last hour of stakeout went past pretty quickly.

When they were heading back to the station and the same scratchy boyish squeak started coming through the radio, Gavin felt like ripping the set out of the car. But when he was reaching for a screen, the music suddenly stopped and the radio completely turned off.

They spent the rest of their way in silence, but Gavin needed to admit that it wasn’t too bad.

The third day of the stakeout must have been the best.

He was supposed to be waiting for Nines in the underground parking lot, but he was early and it was fucking freezing, so Gavin stepped inside the precinct. He had few minutes to spare, so he decided to bother Tina a little bit, because nothing get you going in the morning like coffee and pissing off few people.

Not only was he able to found Tina in the break room, but also it was apparently some officer’s birthday and the whole table was covered with donuts. It wasn’t hard to get on Tina’s nerves, especially since she was doing some kind of fuckup diet and the donuts were looking like a pure caloric sins . Gavin did the only thing a true friend would do and stuffed his mouth with all of the delicious donuts right in front of her face.

When he was exiting the office, he caught the glimpse of Lieutenant Booze and his bipedal breathalyzer, sitting at their desks and frowning. There was a little bit of satisfaction in seeing them struggle with the case, and he _knew_ , he _felt_ it in his bones that the moment shit hit the fan, they would come for help to him and Nines.

He could wait. He was getting so fucking good at waiting.

Today they were switching to the different car, to as Nines put it “not arouse suspicions”. Yeah, for sure, the fucking pigeons were getting suspicious of some ramshackle Opel.

But what the hell, he could humor Nines. He just hoped that the beat up Range Rover didn’t stink as much as the Opel.

As he sat down in the car, Gavin was pleasantly surprise. The car looked much better than their last ride, no garbage on the back seat, nothing was sticking to him, and was it an air freshener?

“Well, would you look at that,” Gavin said, flicking a little tree hanging from the mirror. “Fancy.”

“It is not hard to impress you, Detective.”

His mouth twisted into a smirk.

“However, the navigation panel seems to be disconnected,” Nines explained.

“I think I’m gonna hold my tears for the pillow,” Gavin snarled, because thank fuck, no more radio music.

In his stroke of genius, Gavin had mustered enough energy to charge his headphones before going to bed yesterday. So now he was ready for twelve hours of the stakeout with actually good music. Before he was able to fish them out of the bag, something crossed his mind.

“I saw your good twin and Anderson today. They looked like shit.”

Well, actually they only looked a little bit irritated, but Gavin was hoping that Connor was railing about the case over their “angel radio” and maybe Nines knew something interesting.

He waited for his partner to pull up to the free parking spot and kill the engine.

“Probably the complications connected with their current case must have caused their unease.”

“I bet they just skimmed the scene and got back to braiding each other’s hair.”

“Well, actually they hadn’t even have a chance to investigate the crime scene.”

“What? Why not?”

Nines moved his hands from the steering wheel and placed them on his lap. It was only few seconds, but Gavin knew that in those precious little seconds Nines was weighing his options, debating whatever he should tell Gavin something that wasn’t supposed to be shared.

“The part of the cabin, where the homicide took place has been set of fire and the fire department had been called on the crime scene. Due to some… disagreements between police officers and firefighters, Lieutenant Anderson and Connor were not able to proceed with the investigation.”

Well, if that weren’t some news. Fucking firefighters held their asses higher than their heads and Gavin was always up for some shit talking, when he bumped into those sons of the bitches, but that was just something Gavin did.

However, Anderson didn’t care about those pricks. Even if some rookies had started something, before the detectives arrived, it would be resolved with few pretty words after the intervention. It shouldn’t put the investigation on hold, unless the conflict had occurred between bigger fish. 

Gavin could bet any money that Anderson and Connor run into that racist Trine.

“Disagreement, ha?” Gavin repeated with a smirk. “And how hard did they disagree?”

Steel-blue eyes moved towards him just for a moment and Gavin swore that they weren’t as cold as usual when, Nines spoke.

“Enough to fracture a jaw and caused a mild concussion.”

“Holy fuck!”

He didn’t doubt that Anderson still had it in him to smack some racist prick, but to jeopardize the investigation to defend an android? For sure, the whole incident went straight to Fowler and now fire department found some lame excuse just to not let the detectives enter the crime scene. Bunch of bullshit. But Gavin needed to admit that Trine had it coming.

For few minutes, Gavin watched the people outside, going about their lives, like every other morning. The previous conversation was over, Nines was back to his go - to position, with his hands folded in his lap, head turned in the direction of the main door. He hoped that android knew something more about those homicides, but since the investigation hasn’t even started, there wasn’t much to talk about.

Gavin fished out his headphones and put one of them in. He wasn’t an absolute dick and didn’t block out the noises around him completely, he would call it… semi-professional.

He adjusted the hood of his jacket and sunk a little deeper in his seat.

The man with the e-boy hair, who passed through the parking lot every day around 9 o’clock, was walking to the beat of Gavin’s song. If the guy wore some dark cloths, rather than some vsco t-shirt, it would looks like music video. Who even still wear cloths like that? It looked like a night dress, and the writing on the back looked dangerously like “live, love, laugh”. Atrocious.

“It’s not advised to listen to music during work hours, Detective. It might caused a distraction to the mission,” Nines prompted after awhile.

“That’s exactly what I was hoping for. A fucking distraction,” Gavin answered, his hands waving at the front window. “Nothing is happening.”

“Detective Reed, I must ask you to turn off– “

“Make me,” Gavin said quicker than he thought.

Nines turned his head towards him, his led spinning yellow and as Gavin started to hear some statics, he brought his phone closer to his chest. “Don’t you fucking dare messing with my phone, Nines.”

A small puff of breath. Something so unnecessary. So human. Nines was irritated and Gavin was loving it.

Next thing that happened could be blamed on Gavin’s particularly good mood or the desire to rebel against the rules, but in the heat of the moment, Gavin exchanged his hand with the other headphone towards the android.

Nines was looking at the small, white object in Gavin’s palm longer than necessary and Gavin started to regret his decision. Because what if that prick was thinking how to get rid of his headphones completely, or what if he tossed one of them out of the window, or crash it in his hands and Gavin would be stuck with only half of his 8d experience?

But before he was able to withdraw his hand, Nines was leaning in and picking up the device. He didn’t try to toss it, or hide it, he simply put it in his left ear, led flashing yellow.

Gavin couldn’t resist a small smirk.

“Welcome to the dark side, Nines. We have music.”

Android didn’t answer, his led was spinning and flashing, yellow, blue, yellow, yellow…

Gavin wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it.

He knew that his partner could easily hacked into his headphones or up his super hearing and pick up what was the detective was listening to. Gavin just wasn’t used to sharing his music with anybody. He knew that opinions were like asses, everybody had one and nobody’s was perfect.

Almost.

Gavin didn’t need anybody commenting on his music choices, thank you very much. His music taste wasn’t anything he was ashamed of, but it’s just… music got to be a tad too personal. 

He didn’t quite get it, why from all of the creatures of the world, he decided to share it with Nines, but in that moment, it just felt right.

It took Nines few minutes to adjust, taking all the information in, but Gavin wasn’t pushing. They could sit and listen to his playlist for the rest of the day, it was fine by him.

Half an hour later, Gavin was watching some bouncing Samoyed playing with his owner, when Nines formed his first opinion.

“Your music is… loud and aggressive,” he said, still carefully maneuvering around the words.

“Are you surprised?” Gavin snarled, pointing at himself. “ Loud and aggressive.”

Nines’ eyes were once again a tad softer than usual, the led shining calm blue.

“Apart from rebellious messages in most songs, some of the lyrics seems to be quite profound.”

No shit. That was exactly why Gavin was considering some of his music to be too private.

“I mean, it’s no radio music, for sure, “ Gavin shrugged. “ The pop bullshit is mostly for teenagers rutting against each other and some people are looking for that in their music. Something fun and optimistic. Stupid choice, but hey, it’s their choice.”

It wasn’t like Gavin was some music snob, who listened to only one or two hipster bands. He could admit if the song was good and catchy. But he could also easily point out when the song was trash.

“And your music preference is something with a lot of guitar riffs, anthemic choruses, and swaggering backbeats?” Nines asked, after a particularly old song chimed in.

“If that’s your definition of hard rock, then yeah, “ Gavin took a sip of his coffee before adding, “Sometimes I listen to something Tina send me, but man, she is listening to everything, so it’s always a fucking roulette.”

“Interesting.”

Gavin watched like something twist in Nines’ facial expression, something reminiscent of the faint smile, but it was barely there, tugging at android’s lips. The half – grin lasted longer than any other little quirks of android’s attempts at using his face to reflect his feelings. When the soft beginning of the next song started playing, the smile widened.

“I like this song,” Nines said, when the last chorus rolled in.

“Oh yeah? You should see the music video.”

Two hours later and few more compliments about Gavin’s playlist, they were listening to the music in silence.

He was munching on the last bits of his wrap, his fingers absently drumming on the glove compartment. It was satisfying to listen to his old playlist, remembering little gems he hadn’t heard since being raging teenager. This particular song brought back so many memories.

“You don’t have to control yourself, Detective. If you feel a need to sing along, I can permit it, as long as it wouldn’t be too loud.”

Did Gavin start humming without noticing?

“Oh, you would mind for sure, if I start singing,” Gavin said, wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his hoodie. “I can’t sing for shit.”

He would leave his poor attempts at singing for the comfort of his own four walls, his cats being his only audience.

“But you have a good sense of rhythm. Do you play any instruments?”

“What the fuck is it, Nines? Some kind of Buzzfeed quiz?” Gavin asked, arms crossing over his chest defensively. “I told you what type of instrument I play and you tell me my spirit animal?”

“I’m afraid I don’t have that kind of ability, Detective, “ Nines answered, with a quick glance towards his partners. “But I would assumed it would be something rather small and loud… Like Chihuahua.”

“Oh, fuck you, tin can,” Gavin half-heartily pushed the android in the arm.

Of course, Nines didn’t even budge. But the corners of his lips gave a little twitch, one more attempt at small, quick smile and honestly, Gavin couldn’t made his mind how he felt about that… smile.

The next song rolled in, one that Gavin probably heard too many times, little calmer than the rest, lyrics hitting a little bit too close to home.

All of it was bizarre.

Listening to the songs, which on daily basis ripped into his heart and soul and sharing this experience with Nines. He felt a familiar clenched in his chest and a small voice in his head was telling him to push Nines away. Just in case, just to be sure that he wouldn’t try to ask questions that Gavin wasn’t comfortable with answering.

“I also like this song,” Nines pointed out after awhile.

“What a surprise,” Gavin snarled, because that was something he could do. Be a dick, “You like everything.”

Bless the distraction caused by the android. A little bit longer with his personal mussing and Gavin would let his guard down.

But android seemed to be unbothered by Gavin’s statement, as Nines words weren’t even directed towards the human.

“I think I prefer the songs with meaningful lyrics rather than the ones with more elaborate beat.”

Well, it made them both.

There was a smidge of satisfaction in knowing that Nines appreciated Gavin’s music taste. But at the same time, it didn’t mean anything. The only positive side was that Nines would go into the world with fucking impeccable music taste.

Or maybe Nines just liked whatever everybody was showing him. Apart from that one pop song.

“Why?” Gavin asked, looking at the android with a bit of suspicion. “Why do you like it?”

Fairly easy question.

Gavin wanted to believe that after two months working together, he would be able to pick up on any bullshit Nines’ was trying to pull. Because if the android was trying to get on Gavin’s good list by complimenting his music taste, but not meaning his words, then Gavin would be pissed. Not everyone must agree with him when it came to music, some people were just wrong. But lying about liking something just to fit it? Fucking disgusting.

Gavin felt his hands bawling into fists, his jaws clenching. It better not be talking that tin can that much time to spit out more lies.

But when Nines finally spoke, Gavin stopped breathing for a moment.

“I think,“ Nines started, and holy shit, his voice was so quiet and cautious. “It made me… feel a strange… pull… inside.”

He looked at him, and honestly Gavin didn’t know what to do, because he felt like Nines was telling him the biggest secret in the entire world and he just… he wasn’t good with that sensitive stuff. Whatever Nines saw on Gavin’s face must have been bad, because his led spun a quick yellow and the android avert his gaze.

“I know it doesn’t make much sense. The songs describes feelings and emotions, I may not yet or ever be able to experience, but… still it makes me understand and sympathize with the speaker.”

Gavin looked at his partner, who somehow manage to look stiffer than usual, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that android felt uncomfortable. It wasn’t so unusual to feel something because of the song, hell, it was perfectly normal, but considering Nines complicated and fairly new relationship with feelings, it was one hell of confession.

And Gavin knew he had a choice. He could listen to that little voice in his head and be a dick, pissed on everything Nines just told him and let the familiar feeling of hatred cement their relationship.

Or he could ignore all the warnings in his head and show Nines his more human side, a little bit softer, a little bit more personal.

“It’s nothing weird, you know?” Gavin started and god, he hated himself for speaking at all. “Those songs with souls do it to you, make you relate to them. That way you can tell which song is just a commercial shit and which one someone put some thought and heart into it.”

And there it was, soft Gavin, fucking consoling the android about his not so unusual feelings caused by music. What a weird day.

He was glad that the android didn’t say anything, he didn’t even want to look in Nines’ direction, just slowly letting that moment fade.

The next song started playing, more aggressive, a lot of swearing and Gavin felt himself relaxing. That’s more like him.

Another hour passed, when Nines suddenly shifted in his seat.

“What is it?” Gavin asked, following android’s gaze towards the building.

“The android that is approaching the entrance doesn’t have a permission to enter the building,” Nines explained, his eyes tracking the movement outside. “However, she’s been paying two visits per day. They always last to 10 minutes.”

“Okay, Mr. Detective, maybe she is stopping by to feed cats or something,” Gavin proposed nonchalantly. He gave the woman a few lookups. She looked normal, maybe a little bit tense, walking rather quick towards the entrance.

“The building doesn’t allow animals, Detective,” Nines added. “ I tracked her steps yesterday and she stops on the third floor, however I am not able to track her further into the flat.”

“Okay, so her crime is staying for 10 minutes inside the flat? Come on, Nines, that’s weak,” Gavin answered, crossing his arms over his chest.

They watched like the woman interacted with a panel on the front door, before she stepped inside. Gavin could see her silhouette passing through windows and disappearing somewhere on the third floor. It wasn’t anything suspicious about that and yet…

“Did you scan her?”

“Yes. Her name is Carmen, model KL900, date of activation January 2037, without criminal record.”

“Any family?”

“No one that was mentioned.”

It didn’t look good. Or rather it didn’t look like anything that could be relevant to their mission. They didn’t see any of Sladek’s people around, but it’s not like Gavin expected some shady dudes would start hanging out around the block, right after police received the tip.

“Are you sure about her?” Gavin asked, looking briefly at Nines.

The led was spinning blue, with a sudden spikes of yellow in between, but after a few seconds it went back to blue.

“No, I am not sure,” Nines admitted, his eyes unfocused, “But – ”

Gavin waited for Nines to continue, but nothing came out of android’s mouth after that.

After few minutes, Carmen exited the building and moved towards the crossroad. Gavin looked at her moves, her posture, her long white dress. 

“She’s an android” Gavin said, drawing Nines attention towards him, “Can’t you hack into her brain like you do with Connor?”

“I’m not hacking into Connor’s brain, Detective,” Nines answered, when the woman disappeared into the crowd. “I cannot interfere with her without her permission.”

“Okay then,” Gavin said and started fumbling with his phone. “You said she’s coming two times a day, so she will be back later, right?”

“That’s correct. Usually she comes around 12pm and 6 pm.”

“Cool, so we’ll do it an old fashioned way.”

Nines was looking at Gavin, with a small frown, another addition to android’s small collection of expressions.

“Detective Reed, I don’t understand – “

“Just sit here and look pretty, I’ll be back in an two hours.”

And like that, Gavin exited the car, feeling Nines’ eyes on his back.

It was around 6 pm and Gavin was walking towards the building. He adjusted his hood to hide one of the headphones still in his ear. He could hear Nines’ warning, that the target was approaching him and Gavin sped up a little. From under his hood, he caught a glimpse of white dress right in front of him and he angled his body in the way his face couldn’t be seen. His elbow collided with her back, making the woman tripped a little.

“Sorry,” Gavin replayed, his hands quickly moving to grip Carmen’s shoulders to steady her.

The woman mumbled something under her nose and moved out of Gavin’s reach towards the door. When he heard the front door closing behind her, he started walking towards the parking lot, his hands in the pockets. He crossed the road as quick as possible, without drawing too much attention and he nearly jumped into the passenger seat.

“Did it work?” he asked, his gaze moving from the android to the small tablet in Nines’ hand.

“Why wouldn’t it, Detective?” Nines responded with a little twist of his lips and Gavin wanted to comment about some snarky androids, but his partner pushed the tablet closer, so Gavin could also see what was happening.

The small spy bug that Gavin placed on Carmen’s shoulder, captured the inside of the hall, an echo of her quick steps resonating inside the car.

“I swear, Nines, if I bugged that chick, just to see her cleaning the litter box for 10 minutes, I‘m gonna – “

But when the door of one of the flats opened and Carmen stepped inside, they could see a garbage sprawled around the carpet, blinds draw in every possible window, few portable terminals on the table and a massive, dark armchair with napping Sladek.

It’s been three days since the stakeout and Gavin was finishing his report about the whole android trafficking case. At the end of the day they managed to capture Sladek, bust his next android smuggle and manage to get the list of android’s buyers, so Gavin counted it as a massive success. Especially since he marked that case as a waste of their time pretty quickly. But it wasn’t half as bad as he expected.

He shot Nines one quick glance over the screen. How did Nines know that this case had such potential? Was it that fancy probability program that made him choose that case over the other? Did Nines just get lucky with all this?

“Detective Reed,” Nines’ voice pulled Gavin from his mussing, “I’ve seen the music video, you recommended the other day.”

It took Gavin a second to remember what the android was talking about, but after a moment his lips twisted into a smirk.

“Oh yeah? And which side are you on?”

Steel-blue eyes moved from the screen and looked straight at Gavin. And there it was, that smile.

“I think we already established that you pulled me into the dark side, Detective.”

Okay, so maybe Gavin made up his mind about that smile. He could get used to seeing it more often.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter! 
> 
> I know I didn’t mention any specific songs in the text. I had some titles in mind, when I was writing it, but I just don’t feel like it would look natural if in the middle of the action there would be “Oh yes, this is “Numb” by Linkin Park.” 
> 
> The song that is worth mentioning, the one from music video bit, is “Pretender” by Foo Fighters. If you aren’t familiar with the song, I recommend to listen to it and watch the music video.  
> Also, the title is partially inspired by that song, and partially inspired by the “One of those things”, yes, Sesame Street.  
> All the trademarks belong to their respective owners.


	3. Does this unit have a soul?

_March 15, 2039_

_Tuesday_

The commotion caused by the Courtroom Behavior Seminar for officers wasn’t influencing Nines’ productivity in the slightest. However, when he dragged his eyes from the screen and looked at small hectic movements of his partner, he could tell that Gavin wasn’t pleased with the chaos around them.

Nines would like to believe that he was getting better at reading Gavin’s body language.

Like for example, snapping his fingers under the desk, meant that the detective was growing irritated, or the way his canine teeth pulled on the inside of his lips signified human’s low patience. All the gestures were always small, probably unimportant for someone who wasn’t watching attentively. However, after three months of working alongside detective Reed, Nines knew that they were indicators of the upcoming outburst.

Some kind of distraction was recommended, perhaps a casual conversation or a question about their ongoing case. There was a 20% chance that the initiation of the conversation would be met with detective’s disapproval, but–

But before Nines was able to choose the topic of the conversation, Gavin pushed his chair with a small growl and staggered towards the break room.

Since Officer Chen was present at the seminar, it meant that Gavin went there to refill his coffee. Unfortunately, Nines knew that it would only lead to temporal relief and after approximately 22 minutes, the detective would be even more aggravated.

At that point, his partner wasn’t drinking coffee to feel more energized, but because he enjoyed the taste. Nines learnt that two weeks ago, when despite Gavin’s many protests, he decided to run a quick scan of his partner and saw that not only coffee raised the human productivity only by 2%, but the aftermath of the lack of more liquid caused his stress level to increase by 17%. Completely not worth it. Especially, since Nines was the one who was stuck with snarling and growling human for the rest of the day.

“What level is that?”

Nines turned his head in the direction of the break room, following after Gavin’s voice. There was less people around the open area, which meant that the seminar finally has started and Nines could easily located his partner.

Gavin was standing with one of his hands shoved in the pocket of his black jeans, the other gripping the cup tightly. He was hovering over the boy sitting next to the Detective Filo’s empty desk, his face furrowed in the manner that meant deep concentration.

“Twelve,” the boy answered and the hostility in his voice was clear. He was trying to cover the small, beat up console with his hands, but at the same time his body turned a little bit towards Gavin. His shoulders were tensed, his fingers pushed the buttons too forcefully and Nines could tell that the brave face he was trying to pull, was just an act.

“And you got the crystal update, not bad,” Gavin commented and took a sip of his drink. “Did you beat the gorgon?”

But the boy didn’t answer. His jaws tensed, his stress level increased and with a few more frantic smashing of buttons and he let out an angry growl. After 32 seconds, Gavin smirked around the brim of his mug and started moving towards their desks, leaving the boy behind.

Nines turned back towards his screen, waiting for his partner to join him at the desk. He was shuffling between different sarcastic responses about how Gavin finally found someone on the same level as him, but his partner only brushed past him. Reed moved towards the other side of the office, close to the interrogation rooms, where Detective Filo was filling some papers.

“What’s up with that kid?” Gavin whispered and nodded his head vaguely in the direction of Detective Filo’s desk.

“His mother’s new boy toy beat her up to the point that she passed out. She’s in hospital, unconscious. I have that dick in the room, but he wouldn’t confess, said it was just an accident. The kid saw everything but he doesn’t want to talk,” Detective Filo answered and pinched the bridge of his nose. “His aunt is flying here from Portland to take care of him, but it might take awhile. I called for child psychologists, maybe he would open up to her.”

He saw Gavin moving further into the room, going into the hallway leading to interrogation rooms and disappearing behind one of the doors.

Nines felt his brows furrowing. What was that human doing?

They were in the middle of examining the evidences for their ongoing case, and as much as he could excuse the brief break to refill a mug or stretch his legs, Gavin was obviously getting involved in another case.

Nines understood that cases concerning children were highly important for most people, as the young citizens tend to be more innocent and defenseless and shouldn’t be exposed to the crimes and injustice. Those types of reports were always heavily effecting Officer Miller, since he had a child on his own, or Officer Wilson, who volunteered at the orphanage in his free time.

However, Gavin didn’t seem to be sharing the sentiment. They worked on few cases were they had contact with children and Nines didn’t see any changes in detective’s behavior. As he was sorting through his memories looking for any explanation of his partner’s doings, Gavin was back at his desk. 3 minutes and 24 seconds. Not enough time to question the perpetrator, but enough to get a good look at him from the observation room.

He tried to avoid looking at his partner, as he was going now over his files connected with Gavin. The small spark of pride hit Nines when there was now 3 578 information he gathered about the detective. Especially, he was proud about the folder “Music”, since he had opportunity to explore that subject quite thoroughly. Of course, Nines was aware that there was much more to learn about detective’s music preferences, but for now, it was definitely the most developed folder concerning Gavin.

The ping of the elevator door, followed by the two sets of steps reached Nines’ ears. He didn’t need to turn around to know who they belonged to. The small shift of Gavin’s feet, perched on the top of his desk, only confirmed Nines assumption.

Considering the time of the day, Nines knew that Connor would be going straight to the break room for a cup of water for Lieutenant Anderson, but before he would be able to reach the room, he’d stopped next to Officer Filo’s desk and –

“Oh, hello,” Connor’s cheerful voice was resonating around the office.

It didn’t surprise Nines that the boy didn’t answer, but of course, that didn’t stop his predecessor from trying again.

“I see you like video games,” Connor stated unbothered. “I also like them.”

It was correct. Unfortunately, Nines had been a victim of Connor’s ranting about the remake of some game about building bridges and delivering packages. Nines couldn’t be bothered with the details of the game, since Connor was describing it in rather chaotic manner. Why would he need a baby to survive the apocalyptic wasteland? 

“Did you play it?” the boy asked, nodding towards the game on his console. Connor’s led spin a faint yellow for few seconds he needed to analyze the game.

“Nope,” he answered and offered the boy a pleasant smile. “But I would like to.”

Nines could hear Connor’s attempts at drawing the boy into conversation, but the boy didn’t even spare him one glance, still focused on his game. After 4 minutes and 12 seconds, Lieutenant Anderson took pity on the android and moved towards him with a low sigh. He put a heavy hand on Connor’s shoulder and stirred him towards the break room, without a word.

“I don’t think he likes me, Hank, “ Connor said, easily expressing the disappointment, with his tone and his facial expression.

“We’ve talked about it, Connor,” Lieutenant Anderson answered, patting his partner on the shoulder. “Not everyone has to like you.” 

Nines’ attention switched from the pair to detective Reed, who let out a small breath through his nose. That expression meant that Gavin was…. amused. Yes, that would made sense, since detective very often derived pleasure from seeing Connor failed.

Nines was going over the camera footage of the breaking in of their case, when he heard and unfamiliar patter of rather small feet behind him. The boy was shuffling from one foot to another, looking at Gavin with the same resentment in his eyes as before.

“I got to the gorgon,” he said and pushed the console closer to the detective.

Gavin moved his eyes from his computer screen towards the boy. The console was laying on detective’s desk and after a moment, Gavin grabbed the device with one swift move. He assessed whatever was on the little screen with blank face and a little hum.

“Yeah, you got good sword, but you need a better armor,” he answered, giving the console back to the boy.

“I know that,” the small human answered with a frown, but didn’t budge from the spot next to their desks.

Nines knew that the angle of his head and the blank expression of his face weren’t giving away his involvement in the scene in front of him. But the whole event was peculiar.

He watched how Gavin carefully maneuvered his body to move closer to the boy, pointing at something on the little screen.

“Okay, you have enough coins to buy silver helmet, but we’ll need to fight for some gauntlets. What’s your rate?“

“178/100/298. You?”

“579/170/490.”

“No way! You need to be in Coral!”

“Da-aa. I smashed the Perseus on the first try,” Gavin boasted with a smirk. “178/100 will do with Cetus, you got some ruby gauntlets out of him.”

“I tried with ruby gauntlets before,” the boy answered with a shrug and something in his voice indicated that he wasn’t convinced by Gavin’s plan.

“Yeah, so you’re gonna try again. Hang on.”

Gavin moved to the other side of the office and snatched one of the swivel chairs from Officer Lewis’ desk. He placed the chair next to his own and nodded towards the boy to sit down.

Nines was listening to their conversation with mild interest. Or rather, the technicalities of the game weren’t as interesting to him as the whole interaction between the boy and detective Reed.

He didn’t expect Gavin to be the type of the person to approach and try to interact with children. According to his sources, the ideal person to communicate with children should be gentle, friendly, fun, pleasant and etc. Someone easy – going and regardful as Connor or Officer Miller. However, Reed with his bold and brash attitude wasn’t exactly the type to connect with someone so fragile. Every preconstruction considering Gavin and children ended up with complete evading the situation or with excessive crying.

Nines allowed himself to scan the boy.

Dean Williamson, age 11, family member: mother – Mary Williamson, age 34 ( sole residential parent and legal custodian).

From the way Dean was perched on the high swivel chair, he could tell that the boy felt more comfortable. His face looked more relaxed, without frowns and pinched brows, he even gave Gavin a small smile, when they managed to achieved something after a round of vicious button pressing. And Gavin… Gavin looked absorbed in the game, pointing at different things, giving some quick instructions. Nines could tell that he bit his tongue few times when he wanted to pepper his utterance with some swear words, but other than that, he was rather unapologetically himself. 

“So,” Dean started, looking briefly at Gavin. “are you like a secretary or something?”

“A secretary?!” Gavin scoffed and pointed at the badge on his hip. “I’m a Detective, you clod.”

“Detective Reed, I advise you to watch your language,” Nines warned without taking his eyes from his screen.

In that moment, two pairs of eyes move towards him, as it was the first time the other two noticed they weren’t alone around the desk. Nines caught Dean’s green eyes squinting at him, before quickly averting them back to the game. Gavin however wasn’t intimidated at all and rolled his eyes.

“Whatever,” the detective replied and nudged the boy with his elbow. “Hey, why did you think I work as a secretary?”

“You just don’t look like a policeman,” Dean shrugged. “You don’t have the police uniform like the rest.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t need the uniform, smartass,” Gavin answered and after a painful growl coming from the game, he smirked. “ See? More dodging, less japing.”

Nines let out a small breath, finding at least 5 reasons why was it unprofessional to called a child witness a “smartass”, but a quick peek at Dean made him believe that the boy didn’t mind the name. 

He saw Gavin fumbling with his empty mug and stealing few glances towards the break room. Another coffee would definitely increased detective’s frigidness by 15% , the possibility of him starting a pointless row before evening would total to 82% and it wasn’t worth it. So before Gavin could push himself out of his chair, Nines stood up and with one swift move, plucked the mug from human’s grasp. His partner looked at him with a small frown, which Nines could easily identify as “what the hell, tin can?”.

“Allow me, Detective,” Nines politely offered, turning towards the break room. “You look rather preoccupied.”

The frown deepened but Gavin didn’t stop Nines from moving, so android proceed with his task.

After stepping into the break room, Nines moved on autopilot. He boiled some water in the electric kettle, rinsed detective’s mug, found some black tea in one of the cabinets, added one tea bag, one flat teaspoon of sugar, one slice of lemon cut in half, poured ¾ of hot water, ¼ cold water, stirred for 4 seconds, squashed the lemon few times, took out the bag, rinsed the teaspoon. After 1 minute and 25 seconds, Nines was ready to get back to his desk, but he hesitated.

Would it be appropriate to bring Dean something to drink? When Nines scanned him, the boy didn’t show any signs of dehydration or starvation, however people consider it to be polite to bring someone something to drink or eat. Nines opened the small refrigerator and took out some kind of soft drink. In the other hand he grabbed detective’s tea and moved towards his desk.

Gavin and Dean were sitting in the same positions like before, their eyes moving towards Nines when he wordlessly put the drinks in front of them. Gavin was the first one to grab his mug and as expected, scowled at the view. Dean was more cautious, eyeing a small can for few seconds, before looking at Gavin, then at Nines.

“So he is your secretary?” Dean asked and nodded at android.

“If he was a secretary, he would be a shitty one,” Gavin replayed with a frown. “I wanted coffee, not tea, Nines.”

“Sometimes what you want, isn’t always what you get, Detective,” Nines simply answered and he felt the corners of his mouth twitch.

He was aware that his attempts at smiling might appear rather awkward, but he wasn’t entirely in control over that movement. It was involuntary twitch, that tends to happen mostly around detective Reed.

“Don’t quote some Pinterest shit to me,” Gavin scoffed, but nevertheless cradled the mug in his hands. “And what’s with you and secretaries?”

Nines looked at Dean who was tracing the water droplets on the can with his fingers, his stress levels suddenly spiking. He was silent for awhile, game console forgotten on his laps. Gavin was swirling slightly in his chair, sipping his tea, waiting.

Nines didn’t think that it would work. They didn’t create a proper environment for the boy to feel safe enough to open up, Gavin might have come close to creating the connection, but on the other hand he also called Dean “clod” and “smartass”, so that might lead to nowhere.

After few minutes, the boy grasped the can with both hands and brought closer to himself.

“My mom works as a secretary,” he admitted and shrugged. “She is very good at her job. She’s making important phone calls and going to different meeting with her boss. Sometimes I can come with her. The meetings are boring, but hotels are fun. But after that we are always coming home to Ron.”

“Ron with the crooked teeth and artificial arm?”

“Yeah, Ron is very strong,” Dean assured, looking at Gavin with a frown.

“Pf, I saw Ron and I bet I could beat him up in the fight,” Gavin boasted, spinning in his chair with a smirk on his lips. “Even Nines might get a chance against that guy.”

“No! Ron is very strong, if you fight him, you might get hurt pretty hard!” Dean protested, his own hands bawling into fists.

What was Gavin doing? Why was he riling up the kid so bad?

“I’ll tell you more,” detective teased, leaning closer to Dean, “I bet _you_ could beat him.”

“No!” the kid cried out. “I couldn’t!”

The frown on his face, the clenching fists, his scream, everything about that boy indicated his stress and concern. 

“You tried, didn’t you? And it didn’t work.” Gavin looked the boy in the eyes, the smirk gone. “You need to try again. This time… less dodging, more talking.”

The boy looked away, his jaws clenching and Nines could tell he was holding back tears. Looking at the view in front of him, he could now understand why so many police officers prioritize the cases concerning children.

“What if…” Dean paused, swallowing the lump in his throat, “What if it still wouldn’t work?”

Gavin leaned back in his chair, going over the question in his head, his eyes landing on Nines.

“Now you have two detectives on your side. It will work.”

At 12:31, Child psychologist entered their floor and Dean was taken by Officer Filo to one of the couches around waiting area.

At 12:35, Gavin was called by Officer Filo to assist.

At 3:12, Dean was exiting the precinct with his aunt with lower stress level. In the meantime Ronald Stone was charged with the second degree assault and Dean managed to beat the gorgon.

As Nines was laying in his bed that night, he needed to admit to himself that he’d done nothing that would benefit their ongoing investigation. Of course, the whole day wasn’t entirely unproductive.

At the end of the day, Nines walked out of the precinct with 87 new facts about Gavin. 87 new factors that could optimize his assessing of Gavin’s action.

Most of them were linked to the folder “Gaming” and Nines took upon himself to analyze all of his data more exhaustively. Who knows, maybe Gavin’s anger issue laid in the excessive exposure to brutal video games during his youth? 

Nines was familiar with the concept of games, it was hard to avoid it, with all the billboards scattered around the city, but he had never felt the need to extend his interests.

It was equally pleasing and upsetting, finding things that he could enjoy. Thanks to his advanced system, he didn’t need to experience things to be able to understand them or gather what reactions they could caused. He was content with cold analyzing, without his own judgment and feelings getting in the way. But then someone – something happened and –

And now, look at him, cozying in his bed, listening to various bands he found thanks to G – the stakeout.

Since then, Nines also explored the music on his own, hopping from one singer to another, maneuvering between the sounds he found pleasing and lyrics that made him – twitch inside. The experience wasn’t entirely repulsive. It was confusing at first, he believed that the cause of various commutations popping in front of his eyes was caused the sudden overflow of information.

Nines was able to finally sort through all of the message, but the twitch inside remained. It was a bug, certainly. 

It came with a beat of the drum and whisper of promises in the lyrics and it stayed for weeks, making Nines more and more involved with music. And the bug never want away, it wasn’t as strong and stupefying like the first time, but it appeared, involuntarily. Beyond Nines’ control.

Like a twitch of his lips.

Nines was willing to devote part of his attention and time to learn more about video games. It seemed to be a common form of entertainment around people and androids from different age groups, also a frequent subjects of various discussions around the precinct. He was going over his memory files, selecting different snippets of images and audios connected with video games and linking them to appropriate articles to study later.

He’d already identified the games that Gavin was playing at the stakeout and crossed them with detective’s mobile phones games and little fragments of Gavin’s opinions about gaming experience, he caught during their working hours.

Obviously, there was no pattern. Different genres, different consoles, different game developers.

He thought about limiting his broad research to the period between 2011 and 2039, enough to follow the latest gaming trends, but one remake led to another and Nines went even further.

The total number of information that needed to be study rounded to 1 003 455, approximate time of analyzing data – 5 hours 37 minutes.

Bearable. 

However, when Nines was sorting through his memories, putting the main emphasis on video games, few additional information in Gavin’s folder became overwritten.

~~“NOT WILLING TO COOPERATE WITH CHILDEN AGE 8-12”~~

_New_ WILLING TO COOPERATE WITH CHILDRE AGE 8-12 ( watch out for inappropriate language)

~~OPPOSED TO DRINKING ANYTHING OTHER THAN COFFEE~~

_New_ NOT OPPOSED TO DRINKING LEMON TEA (only 2 cups per day)

New USED TO HAVE A PINTEREST ACCOUNT

Nines went into stasis around 4 am, his memory card filled with information about various video games.

The next day, they were working in the archive room and going over the evidences from previous cases.

“Fucking dipshit,” Gavin was mumbling under his breath.

Nines was standing in the corner of the room a safe distance from the detective, his hands behind his back, scanning the evidences.

The first information that they received after entering the precinct this morning was that one of the evidence was misfiled by new officer and stored in the different unit. Which unit? That unfortunately wasn’t specify, so they were now digging through archive room, trying to locate the missing piece.

“The attorney is coming in 10 minutes, Detective,” Nines announced, looking briefly at his partner.

“Fuck!”

Gavin’s stress level was increasing by every minute. Usually human’s stress level decreased when their mind is preoccupied with positive thoughts or when they are exposed to right stimuli. There was 12% chance that the next time Nines spoke, Detective Reed wouldn’t lash out on him.

He could risk it.

“Detective Reed, I –“

“Don’t fucking talk to me,” Gavin growled, eyes scanning different items. “Don’t need your fucking chitchatting.”

Nines felt his hands bawling into the fists behind his back. Such a brash tone.

There was a small, petty part that wanted to talk back. A little deviant defect, something he discovered after he started working with Detective Reed. It appeared that he wasn’t as regardful as Connor, that there was a part of him that wanted to rile the detective to the point of snapping.

He would only need to point out that it wasn’t their responsibility to correct the mistake of some officer, that they had an ongoing case and they already wasted yesterday on babysitting.

The words were on the tip of his tongue and few weeks ago, Nines would be saying it all with a blank stare and hands around detective’s flying fists.

Now, Nines hesitated.

Gavin’s posture was terrible, he was slumbered over the terminal, shoulders tensed. His hands were gripping the screen with such a strength that Nines saw his veins popping. There was a scowl on his face, beastly, animalistic expression and detective Reed needed so little to be pushed over the edge.

It might have been amusing not so long ago, seeing Gavin’s struggle in his grip, seeing him snapping and wrecking havoc, just because of Nines’ few little words. However, since last month, Nines had thought that something might have shift in his perception of the detective. He still couldn’t comprehend most of his actions and every day more questions than answers had appeared, but that was the real challenge.

Getting to know his partner. 

At the end of the day, that what they were. Partners.

Right know, Gavin didn’t need another person who would pissed him off and made his job harder.

So, Nines remained silent.

And then when Detective was ready to sweep to another unit, Nines finally caught it.

“Left bottom corner.”

Gavin didn’t say anything, just launched forward, snatched the small bullet in the evidence bag and stormed out of the archive room. Nines wasn’t expecting any words of gratitude, but when he caught Reed’s eyes, they weren’t as stormy as usual, the light above them making the green in his iris more prominent.

That was enough.

“ And he fucking put “R” instead of “P”. What a fucking moron. I’m telling you, Tina, we should put all those dumb bitches back to elementary school to learn how to spell.”

“Yeah, but you are one of those bitches, Gavin,” officer Chen teased. “Yesterday you sent me a text with “cockies” rather than “cookies”.

“Oh, shut up, Chen, text messages don’t count!”

Nines wasn’t ear dropping. It wasn’t his fault that both, detective Reed and officer Chen, had rather strong voices and they barely made it into the break room. They were hovering near the exit, both with their coffees in their hands, both 2 minutes past their break.

“But I’m impressed. I was expecting to see the whole precinct in shambles and Polewski’s head on the stick in the middle of the bullpen.”

“Yeah, that fucking rat is patrolling the whole Detroit, just to not come back to the precinct,” Gavin snarled. “I can’t wait to lay my hands on that motherfucker.”

That was certainty a problem.

According to Nines calculations, Gavin’s disciplinary file was already overflowed. Captain Fowler was kindly disregarding most of the complains, as long as the detectives were upping numbers for the precinct. It wouldn’t be a first time that Gavin assaulted fellow police officer, as using violence and force were very often his main solution to resolve the tension and showing his superiority.

One of those days, Captain Fowler’s patience would be running thin and Gavin would guarantee himself a solid suspension. There was a 88% possibility that beating up a new officer, freshly from academy, whose parents were good friends with captain Fowler would be that point. Nines couldn’t let Gavin get suspended and jeopardize their ongoing case.

“Okay, I’m gonna grab some tea for Rob and I’m heading out,” Officer Chen announced and nodded towards the break room.

After 5 minutes and 12 second past his break, Gavin sat down at his desk. They didn’t speak to each other, but Nines didn’t register any signs of increased anger or hostility towards him, so the attempt of making conversation could be successful.

He waited for his partner to consume at least 45% of his coffee, making Gavin the most approachable. Enough caffeine in his system to feel a jolt of energy, but not too much, to make him twitchy.

“You decided to join me, Detective?” Nines said, without looking at his partner. “I’ve started to believe that you forgot that you are in the middle of the case.”

“Fuck off, Alexa,” Gavin growled and typed something on his keyboard. “I don’t need to be chained to the desk to think about the case.”

“Certainly, you were capable of analyzing the video footage of the suspect from 9.56 meters away. I shouldn’t have doubt that,” Nines answered and send Gavin’s the close-up of the suspect’s face.

Detective perched his feet on the edge of his desk and assessed Nines’ discovery with scrutinizing eyes.

“Blurry as fuck,” Reed pointed out and let out a sigh. “Don’t bother me with that pointless shit.”

However, Nines saw how Gavin’s fingers were typing the date when the shots were taken, going over the footage one more time.

Such a brash, stubborn man.

“Detective Reed,” Nines started and glanced towards his partner. “Are you familiar with the concept of Commute Seasons?”

Gavin peeked at him over the edge of his screen, before his eyes narrowed slightly.

“Maybe,” he answered and crossed his hands over the chest. “Why?”

“It’s a name of one of the missions in the game _“Patron Release_ ” from 2029, produced by – “

“I know where it’s from, you dickhead. What’s your point?”

“In the game, the protagonist, Jonny, is taking revenge on his best friend Lucky for stealing his position as a mountaineer, by transforming Lucky’s room into Winter Wonderland.”

“Yeah? And what do you expect? To get a pat on the head for learning something about video games? Go bother your twin with your gaming trivia.”

“It was not my intention, Detective,” Nines said. “I’m just trying to point out, that if there was an occasion to teach someone a valuable lesson, it would a way to do it.”

Without violence, Nines thought.

Gavin spun a little bit in his chair, his eyes staring at Nines the way that detective looked at the suspect. Distrustfully.

There was a possibility that Nines was overstepping his boundaries, suggesting a way to get over the problem that didn’t even involved him. However, if he simply suggested that Gavin shouldn’t be attempting to beat officer Polewski, it would only enrage the detective even more.

“What am I, five?” Gavin sneered. “That dipshit deserves to be punched, not some kind of poor prank.”

Nines didn’t say anything and went back to his screen.

Perhaps if he had worded the proposition better, then it would have a higher chance to succeed. He wondered how long officer Polewski would be hiding outside of the precinct, when Gavin leaned over his desk, lowering his head to look at Nines.

“We’re gonna need shit ton of sand.”

Nines furrowed his brows.

_We?_

It was 11:34 pm, his shift ended over three and a half hour ago and Nines was sticking a small, glittery stickers to the computer screen.

“Oh shit, it’s gonna be good. I can feel it.”

He dropped his gaze to his partner, who was dumping yet another bucket of sand into the desk.

“Don’t you think that it’s enough sand, Detective?”

“Fuck no! It must look like a real sandbox!”

It was 11:35 pm and they were still at the precinct, transforming officer Polewski’s desk into the playground.

Fortunately for them, the night shift was assign to stay on the ground floor, so after their own shift had ended, they sneaked up to the third floor and started working.

Officer Polewski’s desk looked exactly how Nines imagined it, after Gavin’s explained his plan. There were various plastic toys and cars scattered around the edge of his desk, teddy bears peeking from his drawers. Gavin had way too much fun with stealing all the supplies from the common room of Child and Family Support Division at the end of the corridor.

Nines was assigned to decorate officer’s memo board with the alphabet letters and sparkling stickers, which, he could imagine, would be quite unpleasant to get rid of. And of course, there was a heap of sand in the middle.

“Could you like hack into his terminal and put a parental control on his web browser?” Gavin asked and piled up enough sand to build a sandcastle.

“That would be a violation of officer Polewski’s privacy, “ Nines answered and more stickers were distributed over different office supplies. Gavin already had changed all the pens with crayons and all the documents with coloring books.

“Oh, now you are playing a good boy, Nines?” Gavin teased, rolling the swirly chair to the other side of the office. “Where’s your Jonny Diaz’s spirit?”

“Jonny Diaz was a patient of the mental institution, Detective,” Nines answered. “I do not wish to possessed his spirit.”

“Yeah, but the guy had some good ideas,” Gavin admitted. He bought the small, pink chair and put it in front of the desk. “And beside, you learnt that he was in the mental institution at the end of the game and you, the player, are that dickish voice in his head that makes him do all of the shenanigans.”

“Yes, that was an interesting plot twist.”

Nines watched detective Reed picking up one of the markers and starting to draw on the plastic walls separating the desk and the hall.

“De – “

“Relax, Dorothy,” Reed answered and draw a head inside a police car. “It’s erasable.”

It’s not like Nines didn’t believe Gavin, but just in case, he scanned the marker. Indeed, it could be easily erased with a wet towel.

“So, how do you know about _Patron Release_? You don’t look like someone who would play that kind of games.”

Nines knew that there was 74% chance that Gavin would ask questions about Nines’ interest in gaming, but still it took him a moment to choose a correct response.

“I’ve been exploring different genre of games,” Nines answered, as the last sticker made it onto the wall. “I was considering purchasing a game console, however I didn’t made up my mind just yet.”

“Can’t you like download games to your brain?”

“And play them with what, Detective?” Nines asked, skeptically. “With power of my mind?”

“Yeah! Cyberlife should come up with that!” Gavin said. “Like little Tetris in the corner or Fruit Ninja.”

There it was again. That twitch of his mouth, uncontrollable, involuntary. Still, Nines had his doubt about the new functions that deviancy caused, those little elements over which he had no control.

“Your talent truly goes to waste in the precinct, Detective,” Nines answered with a small smirk and the next thing he registered was a marker aimed at his forehead.

“Fuck you, tin can,” but there was no malice in Gavin’s voice.

Nines swirled the marker between his fingers, before looking at the wall next to him. He’s never tried drawing, he might be quite awful, but since the pictures around Officer Polewski’s desk supposed to look like children drawing, it was a good place to start.

“Just don’t go Picasso over there.”

“Are you afraid I could overshadow your blue ambulance, Detective?” Nines teased.

“Oh fuck off, you know very well that it’s a police car,” Gavin said, motioning towards his drawing.

Nines stepped back from the desk and moved next to his partner, who was standing away from all the mess.

They both looked at their work, sand slowly spilling into the floor, light shimmer of the glittery stickers and two drawings on the wall, the police car and happy stick figure with a badge.

“So, you’re telling me, that this is better than punching a guy?”

The consequences of their action might have gone two ways, depending on Captain Fowler’s mood. However, when Nines looked at Gavin, with his hands in his pockets, shoulders relaxed, looking proudly at their work and smiling, there was only one answer.

“Most definitely, Detective.”

The next day, the complaint against Detective Reed was already waiting for Capitan Fowler on the desk.

Nines saw, how he perched on the edge of his desk, one hand already pressing at his temple, eyes scanning the text. But when he reached the end of the page, he let out a small laugh and with a shake of his head, ripped the paper to pieces.

Two weeks later, Nines was invited to Detective Reed’s flat to test the gaming console.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the games mentioned here are made up! (except for Tetris and Fruit Ninja, ofc)


	4. This is the part where you run away

It was Saturday and Gavin was planning to sleep till noon. He wasn’t really tired and his sleeping problems didn’t bother him as much anymore, but after that chaotic week he felt like lazing a little bit in his bed.

But on the other hand… He wanted coffee.

Why, oh why, he didn’t train one of those fluffy fuckers to make coffee for him in the morning.

He let out a loud sigh, grabbed his phone and untangled himself from his sheets. As he stretched in front of the window, he took a look outside. Thank fuck it was sunny today, he could use a little jog around the neighborhood before lunch.

On his way to the kitchen, he stepped into the bathroom. As he was done with his quick, morning routine (pissing, slap of water in the face, combing his finger through his hair), his eyes drifted to the fluffy ball lurking behind the toilet.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Gavin said and dropped to his knee to have a better look at the cat. That fucker had the audacity to look Gavin straight in the eyes, while his paw slowly stretched to one of the pipes.

“Don’t you dare,” Gavin hissed. How did his cat even managed to squeeze himself into that space? Gavin ducked even lower, his hands snatching the cat, just in time before the animal could do any damage to the pipe.

“Not today, Satan,” Reed prompted, holding the cat under his arm. “Not today.”

Satan meowed at him and as soon as they entered the kitchen, wiggled his way of Gavin’s hold. Reed watched him parade with his tail up high, before disappearing somewhere behind the couch.

Gavin busied himself around the coffee machine and waited for it to do its magic. Coffee and back to bed. That was his plan.

He was scrolling through his phone, looking mostly at pictures, it was way too early to read anything, when his phone vibrated in his hand.

**_ xxx-xxx-xxx _ **

_(9:30)_

_Good morning, Detective Reed. I would like to confirm today’s meeting at 3 pm._

Oh yeah, _that_.

It wasn’t that big of the deal. Gavin invited Nines, or rather, made fun of him that despite his _oh so_ diverse knowledge about video games, he’d never played one. The image of Nines playing the newest _Bayonetta_ was just hilarious and before he could think twice about what he said, Nines was already agreeing to drop by on Saturday. It was rush and impulsive invitation.

His coffee machine let out the most beautiful sound and Gavin quickly moved to grab his mug.

The first sip was never enough. Around third sip, he felt satisfied. And ready to tackle the issue.

His phone was laying on the counter, still flashing, open at the message from Nines and Gavin thought about cancelling.

It was just stupid. He said something before he thought it through and now, he felt stupid. Story of his life.

Why the fuck did Nines agree? If he wanted to play some video games, he could go to Anderson’s and have fucking family night with his papa and big bro. It was Saturday, their day off, why on earth would Nines want to look at his ugly mug and put up with Gavin’s shit in his free time.

Maybe he wanted to lurk around his flat and find some humiliating things about Gavin. No such luck! Gavin’s secrets weren’t anywhere in the plain sight. They were hidden deep inside, guarded by his unwillingness to cooperate and Satan himself! So Nines could come and sniff around as long as he wanted, but he wouldn’t be able to find shit.

Unless, Gavin would want him to.

He bit his bottom lip, his eyes still moving over the message. He didn’t like people in his space. He didn’t have problem with Tina or sometimes Chris, but letting Nines in… Who was he to come to Gavin’s house on Saturday to play video games?

They worked together, they were assigned as partners, they moved around each other from Monday to Friday and on the weekend, they forgot that the other existed. That’s how it worked.

But now Gavin was sipping his coffee, thinking about all the co-ops they could play. It was fucked up.

He should cancel.

**_ Gavin _ **

_(9:41)_

_3’s fine_

Fuck.

Few hours later, Gavin was slipping into grey joggers, when he heard the bell. He took his sweet time with putting on a t-shirt, because he wouldn’t fucking run to the door. His hair was still messy and damp from the shower, but it’s not like he needed to look polished. He was in his own house, he could walk in the fucking robe in he wanted to. When he was heading to the door, he saw his grey cat peeking from behind the couch.

“Give him hell, S,” Gavin said and scratched the cat behind the ear.

The bell buzzed again this time longer and Gavin wrenched the door open.

“Jesus, I heard you the first time,” he said as the greeting. “No need to abuse the bell.”

Nines was looking at him for a moment, looking for his eyes, but Gavin quickly turned around and moved out of the way.

“Hello to you too, Detective.”

Gavin bumped his hip on the counter, his arms crossed over his chest. 

“Yeah, we’ve already exchange pleasantries over the phone,” Gavin answered nonchalantly, but he couldn’t stop his hands tightening around his arms, when Nines stepped into his flat. “We can move to me kicking your ass in Tekken.”

“It’s hard to call it pleasantries, Detective. I’ve greeted you over the phone, but you managed to answer with one number, one word and one abbreviation,” Nines pointed out, his grey eyes sliding along Gavin’s walls.

“Yea, well, you are fucking here, so the message got across.”

Gavin already hated it.

Nines was analyzing his living room, his little led blinking yellow. He bet his partner wouldn’t spare anything, he would be trying to pick the smallest details and piece out Gavin’s personality based on the fucking wall papers.

Gavin knew that sharp gaze of Nines’, he was investigating his place like some kind of crime scene. His couch, his dresser, fucking scratching post in the corner. But he would find nothing out of ordinary.

His place was snooper proofed.

Finally, Nines’ led stopped blinking and remained on steady, calm blue and he looked at Gavin.

“I see you’ve cleaned the place before me arrival,” Nines said with a little, smug smirk on his lips. “Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Detective.”

Oh, that fucker.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Gavin answered and snatched his mug from the counter. “It’s always like that. I don’t like to live in filth.”

Like Gavin would leave any garbage laying around. Too much evidence. Plus his cats would be all over the shit in the instant.

Nines finally moved from his place next to the door and stepped deeper into the living room. When he was making his way towards Gavin, grey fluff crossed his path and Nines stopped.

“Say hi,” Gavin said with a smirk, looking like Nines and his cat held each other’s gazes. Satan let out a small meowed as a greeting.

“Your cat is more polite than you, Detective.”

Gavin let out a small breath. Oh, he couldn’t wait for Nines to pat his cat. He would see how fucking polite Satan actually was. But Nines stepped around the small, curious creature and looked around the rest of the flat.

“There is also another feline in your flat, correct?” Nines asked, but it was obvious that he already knew the answer.

“Yeah, she’s hiding,” Gavin shrugged and moved towards the couch. “Probably planning how to rip that led of your head.”

“She couldn’t do much harm, Detective.” Gavin noticed that Nines was following him to the couch but didn’t sit down, just stand next to it.

“Oh, if someone could, that would be her.”

Gavin turned on his TV and console and started going through different games. The android was looking at him, Gavin could feel his eyes boring into his profile, and he let out a deep sigh. He hated it.

“You can sit your ass down, Nines. She’s not gonna jump out of the couch.”

Gavin looked quickly at the android, how his lips gave out a small twitch and he moved to sit on the other site of the couch. They waited for a game to load, when Satan appeared around his legs. But he wasn’t interested in Gavin, since the human knows all his tricks, he looked at Nines, with his big, green eyes, before wiggling around android’s ankles.

“I presume, he is a good cop to her bad cop,” Nines commented, looking at the cat dancing between his legs.

Gavin ducked down and snatched another pad from the floor. He tossed the controller to the android, who caught it easily without looking from the cat.

“Nah,” Gavin answered, settling comfortable on the couch. “They’re more like partners in crime.”

“Look how they fucked up this place. One bridge down, other bridge down. Get rid of the bridges. We can’t let people know we used them,” Gavin announced, his mug cradled in his hands almost tipping the tea on the couch.

He could see that the android was smiling, not that twitchy, awkward smirk, but real smile. Was it because of the successful attack in the game, or because of Gavin’s stupid commentary, he didn’t know.

“Is it okay, if I play another round?” Nines asked.

“Someone’s got hooked, ha?” Gavin teased. “Good boy Nines likes to see those achievements unlocked.”

“There is definitely a satisfaction in seeing that my mission was accomplished,” Nines answered, pad balancing on his knee. “Especially, the ones you’ve failed to complete.”

“I didn’t play it in like 10 years, you little shit,” Gavin’s foot kicked Nines’ leg, trying to knock the controller over. “And here I was, thinking you could go one more time.”

“Would you like to change?” Nines asked. “You’ve been watching me play for an hour and 56 minutes now, I believe, it must be quite dull.”

“Yeah, your reading instructions is fucking boring. You’re learning things on the go, moron.”

Gavin looked at Nines’ small smile still playing on his lips and nodded towards the screen. 

“The next boss will fuck you up.”

In all honesty, Gavin was having a blast. He didn’t mind relaxing on the couch and watching Nines play. Especially, since his partner seemed to be really invested in the story. It didn’t surprise him, that the android was smashing all the fight sequences.

They had played two other games today, some old coop, he started with Chris, even before his son was born, and few rounds of straight up kicking each other’s asses street fighters style. It hadn’t taken long for Nines to get used to the pad and controllers, so before Gavin could even explain what was going on, RK was already launching at his character and crashed him into the ground. The fucker learnt quickly and was bloody good. When Nines took interest in one of the oldest single player games, Gavin just leaned back and let his guest rummage around the Japanese village.

So watching Nines slicing his enemies with a precision and without hesitation, was actually far from being boring.

But Gavin couldn’t just admitted it.

He couldn’t just say that he fucking enjoyed, being squeezed on his lumpy couch with his cat stretched between them. 

His eyes moved from Nines to the screen, just in time to see the protagonist slitting the throat of his enemy.

“Are you sure you don’t want to play, Detective?” Nines asked, his thumb working around the joystick, stirring the character into tall grass.

“What? You want me to show you how it should be done?”

“The point of video games is to actively participate in the game by actually playing it. I feel that I’m depriving you from the entertainment.”

Oh, you sweet android fucker. You had no idea how far from the true you are.

“Naah,” Gavin shrugged and let his fingers tangled into Satan’s fur. “That’s the magic of games, you can enjoy them in different ways. You can play them, you can watch them, you can spend the whole night reading about the lore without even actually touching the game itself.”

Nines averted his gaze from the game, his eyebrow arched in the way that made Gavin’s fingers twitch. No way in hell would Gavin admitted that he almost failed the chemistry in his freshman year, just because he was too sucked up in Zelda wiki to study for the test.

Gavin gave RK a shrug, that would be enough for the android to drop the subject, right?

Apparently wrong, because his led was blinking yellow for a second, his brows slightly furrowed and he didn’t turn back towards the screen. Was he really so worried about Gavin not playing?

“I used to watch a lot of lets plays as a kid,” Gavin admitted, because why the fuck not, maybe it would make the android relax. “ Sometimes I still do, there is so much shit dropping now, that it’s hard to keep up on your own. So it’s not so different from me watching you play. Except, you know how to use stealth. Mostly.”

“Thank you for the complement, Detective,” Nines answered, his eyes trailing over him, his voice teasing. “I’m glad you appreciate my play.”

“It wasn’t a complement, asshole. I said, mostly. Fucking wolf spotted you like 10 minutes ago! A wolf, Nines!”

Gavin leaned back on the couch and small yawn escaped his mouth. It seemed to trigger something in Nines, his led back to blinking quick yellow.

“I apologize, Detective,” Nines said and stood up from the couch rapidly. “I wasn’t aware of the time. I overstayed.”

A small huffed escaped Gavin’s mouth as he scratched his neck. He wanted to say that Nines overstayed his visit around 11 pm, now it was the middle of the night and they were pulling an all – nighter. But before he was able to open his mouth, Nines was already putting on his jacket and shuffling towards the door. He could try and stop RK from walking away, but Nines was clearly uncomfortable with the idea of staying here any longer.

Maybe it’s for the better.

Gavin didn’t bother to move from the couch, he just tipped his head backwards to see Nines slipping into his shoes and straighten his shirt.

“Thank you for your hospitality, Detective,” Nines said, from the poorly lighted corridor, his face turned in a way that unable Gavin to see his led. “ I wish you a goodnight.”

“Whatever,” Gavin shrugged and felt something crawling inside his chest. “See you at work.”

After Nines left, Gavin slumped further into his couch, the paused game flashing at his face. He wondered if it was even worth it to save Nines’ progress. It was one time invitation, it’s not like the android would be coming back to his place.

“Satan,” he said, his hand cautiously running over cat’s belly. “What do you think?”

His cat let out a weak meow and swatted Gavin’s hand away. Sweet as always, ungrateful motherfucker.

He grabbed the pad, still warm to touch and quickly press “save”.

It just… It just didn’t feel right to erase whatever Nines’ accomplished today.

On Monday, things were different.

They started their morning with usual dose of bickering over Gavin’s morning coffee, they drove to the witness’ house listening to Nines’ not so shabby playlist, they questioned the woman back and forth and there was a chance that they managed to finally locate a suspect.

From outside everything looked the same, but Gavin knew, he _felt_ , something was different.

They were waiting in the living room for a witness to bring some photos of the perp and Gavin was getting bored. How long did she need to dig up few photos?

Nines, of course, was unaffected by the waiting, the android had the all time in the world. His eyes were moving over different paintings around the room. Was Nines interested in art? Or was he just bored? He remembered that RK actually pointed out few interesting facts about the graphics and designs in the games, that Gavin hadn’t paid attention to.

Gavin watched from the corner of his eyes, how Nines’ gaze was boring into the beautiful painting of some woman surrendered by mist.

One work of art admiring another work of art. How fucking bizarre.

When Nines’ head turned in his direction, Gavin quickly averted his gaze. No way in hell would Reed admit he was staring, see, he wasn’t even fucking sitting at the same couch as Nines anymore! Away he go! Naturally! Don’t be suspicious!

Gavin stuffed his hands in the pockets and started pacing around the room. Sitting next to Nines made his attention switched to his partner and it wasn’t cool. It was far from fucking cool.

The piano standing in the corner looked more and more tempting with every second.

He brushed his fingers over the wood and he knew, he _felt,_ Nines’ eyes on him.

He pushed few keys lazily, filling the room with a familiar melody. Damn, he didn’t play in such a long time, he even barely remember the notes, he must be relaying on muscle memory. When he heard the creak of the floor above, he stopped abruptly.

“Impressive, Detective,” Nines said and Gavin didn’t need to turn around to know that the fucker was smirking. “ However, I believe that the song starts with G.”

“Oh, I know that,” Gavin answered turning towards his partner with a shit-eating smile. “I start with F to pay respect.”

The little yellow led was spinning for few seconds, before flickered a bright blue and Nines let out the most heart-warming little chuckle.

Gavin’s own smirk shifted into pleased smile and –

Oh.

_Oh._

So _that_ was different. Well, fuck.

They were driving back to the precinct and Gavin had his eyes glued to the road. He didn’t _need_ to look at Nines, he didn’t _want_ to look at Nines, he didn’t fucking want to _think_ about Nines.

He knew that fucking weekend would bite him in the ass.

There was a border, a wall, a motherfucking electric fence that Gavin put around himself long time ago to keep any snooping shitheads away from his business. And it worked. With his off-putting character, his lack of respect towards people, his mouth constantly spitting some nonsense, it was the easiest thing in the word to keep people away. When someone was fucked up enough to find Gavin interesting, they weren’t able to survive longer than few weeks around him, saying that he was just too much. He was _a lot_ , he was aware.

Gavin didn’t want people coming and going. He didn’t need friends. He had Tina, he had his cats and it was enough.

And now, that dick with his smiles and his snarky comments was slowly lurking Gavin from his fortress of loneliness.

Gavin liked his fortress. Gavin didn’t like people.

Gavin didn’t like Nines.

He was so deep into his own head, that he almost missed that his partner was suspiciously silent since they’d left the house.

“What’s up with you?” Gavin asked and stole a quick glance to the right. He didn’t want to look at Nines’ face, so he moved his eyes over android’s lap, where the photos were scattered.

“I was wondering about the case, Detective,” Nines answered and his fingers swiftly shuffled through the photos. “Madeline Braun was not taken into consideration during investigation, despite her having the access to the website, because she doesn’t match with the suspect profile. She is an A grade student, with scholarship, she’s involved with university voluntary organizations, she came from wealthy family. She’s on very good terms with all the professors that received the blackmails. Simply, it doesn’t make sense for her to commit that crime.”

“We can’t ignore her just because she appears to be nice,” Gavin said with a small shrug. “From the outside she could be the perfect miss America, but from the inside, she could be rotten. There’s a lot more to people than they let others know. Fuckers have so many layers.”

Nines let out a small hum.

“Ah, yes, like onions.”

Gavin was so very close to slamming the brakes and stopping in the middle of the road. His head wiped towards Nines so quickly, he heard something cracking in his neck.

“Did you – “ Gavin started, his eyes wide. “Did you just quote Shrek?!”

Nines was still looking at the photos in his lap, a small smirk playing on his lips.

“I believe I did, Detective, “ he answered calmly. “The comparison seems to be appropriate.”

_What the actual fuck?_

“You’re a fucking weirdo,” Yeah, that’s right, name calling! That’s what you do to people you don’t like and don’t find funny. “Did you see all films?”

No! Fuck! Gavin didn’t care if Nines saw all movies! Why the fuck his brain couldn’t cooperate with his mouth? They had a case to work on, they were still at work, their relationship was strictly professional. No chitchatting about Shrek or any pointless shit. Just work.

“I’ve seen _Shrek_ and _Shrek 2_ with Connor and Lieutenant Anderson,” Nines said and his head, _finally_ , turned towards Gavin. “I was hoping to see the third film this weekend. Would you like to join me, Detective?”

Oh, you motherfucker. That was his strategy? Lurking Gavin away from his safe bubble with Shrek? Like it would work on Gavin.

“Nah, I have grown ups things to do on weekend,” Reed answered with a cocky smile. “You’d better watch it with your girlfriends.”

“Are you afraid of the showing your softer side, Detective? I’ve heard that the third film is rather emotional.”

“It’s fucking Shrek. How emotional could it get?!”

Ah yeah, the King Scene. Gavin completely forgot about that King Scene. But Gavin was no longer eight years old, so no fucking way he would cry again.

Nines only shrugged in response. Which was quite… odd, because Nines haven’t shrugged before. Few more weeks and that dipshit could convince anyone that he was a real boy.

They spent the rest of their way to the precinct in silence. Without softer beats of Nines’ playlist, without his boasting about beating some mini boss in record time, without smiles.

Gavin’s heart was heavy, when he pulled up to the parking station in front of the precinct. He unbuckled his seat belt, but didn’t make a move to get out.

He didn’t want to look at Nines, he _truly_ didn’t want to talk to him, but that fucking android was staring and –

“Why did you invite me?”

The question hanged between them for few seconds and Gavin started to regret he even asked. What was the point? What did he want to hear? That RK was just being polite? That it was some kind of pay back for Gavin’s invitation from last weekend?

“There was only 18% chance, you would said yes,” Nines answered, his eyes looking at something straight ahead. “ But it was worth a shot.”

It didn’t exactly answer Gavin’s question, actually, it didn’t answer it at all. But something about the way that Nines said it, something about the fact, that RK knew that Gavin would decline, but still decided to try, it made the same pulling in his chest came to life again.

“Okay, but we’ll also watch my film. No way in hell, I would drag my ass to your place to only watch Shrek!” 

Gavin prided himself with being the way he was. Gavin, the Asshole, the Bastard, the Motherfucker, if someone dared.

But when he was climbing up the stair towards Nines’ flat on Saturday evening, he didn’t think that those words fit him anymore. Now, the most reasonable description would be: Gavin the Fool.

He let his guard down, his body and soul betrayed him and he agreed to something so stupid like a movie night in the enemy’s land. But Gavin came with a plan. He was listening to the angriest, more savage playlist, the one he uses to let out some steam at the gym and he was ready to fight. Because maybe Gavin lost the battle, but he was fucking prepared for a war.

Today, Gavin would be the ugliest, the most unbearable person possible. After that night, Nines wouldn’t want to look at him outside of work. He would earn his titles back, he would go back to his fortress with his head high, laughing at another bastard who thought that could handle him.

When he slammed his fist on Nines’ door, he was pumped. He was a man on the mission, he was determined to succeed, he was –

“Hello, Detective.”

Oh, Gavin couldn’t wait to wipe that stupid smile from Nines’ face, and when he was ready to push past the android into the flat, something caught his eyes.

“That’s Hank’s,” Gavin ran his mouth before he could stop himself, pointing at the head, which peeked from behind the door.

“That is correct,” Nines answered and pushed the door further for Gavin to see the beast of the dog, sitting near the couch. Oh fuck, were Hank and Connor here?! Did Gavin get outnumbered?! “Lieutenant Anderson and Connor are out of town for the weekend. I’m dog sitting Sumo.”

Well, wasn’t that fucking peachy.

“Yeah? I’m allergic to dogs, dipshit,” that was a lie, but Gavin took upon himself to make Nines feel bad today, so he might as well start with making him feel guilty. Classic asshole move.

But Nines didn’t look bothered, what’s more, Gavin could swear he looked amused, when he stepped back into his flat.

“That is incorrect, Detective,” Nines said over his shoulder, before motioning for Gavin to come closer. “Your medical records show that you are allergic to acetaminophen and cocoa. Which is quite unsettling, because I saw you consumed chocolate on various occasions.”

“Yeah, some stupid allergy wouldn’t stop me from enjoying life,” Gavin answered and closed the doors with a little bit more force than necessary. ”But I must have been a real dick in the previous life since they punished me that way.”

“I believe that your precious life isn’t so much different from your present one,” Nines stated with that little smug smirk and if he hoped to hide it behind the dog, then he was doing a poor job.

Gavin was ready to tell Nines to shut the fuck up, but when he turned towards him, the words stuck in his throat.

Android was crouching now, one hand combing through Sumo’s fur, his grey-blue eyes focused completely on Gavin. It was something in his gaze that made Gavin’s skin hot, like RK couldn’t believe that he was actually here, standing in his beige, blunt living room. For Gavin, it was also hard to wrap his mind around the whole scene, Nines in some white long sleeve and black jeans, bare feet, looking homey and real. Something was starting to stir inside him, some gut feeling telling him that it was a moment to flight or fight.

He’d rather get the fuck away as quickly as possible and wipe the image out of his memory completely , or he’d stay and see how much the whole evening would ruin him.

And Gavin Reed came here to fight. Right?

He moved first, breaking the whatever the fuck was going on between them, and headed to the kitchen.

“You’d better have a microwave in your fancy apartment,” Gavin said and slammed ten packages of popcorn into the counter. “Because I need to snack when I watch something.”

When Nines let out a small chuckle and brushed past him to open one of the cupboards, Gavin wasn’t entirely sure about what side he was fighting for.

“Okay, so what do you think?” Gavin asked after the credits of the film started rolling.

Nines’ elbow was perched on the armrest , his head propped up on his hand.

“I’ve already told you, Detective,” RK said, sparing Gavin one quick glance. “It was decent.”

“Decent?! What the fuck are you talking about?! It is one of the coolest movies I’ve seen!” Gavin protested and barely stopped himself from throwing more popcorn at Nines. It would only be the waste of his food. “But what about all those fight scenes?”

“Are you talking about those fight scenes which looked more like dance sequences than combat? Or maybe you meant all those moments when everybody, except for the main protagonist, forget how to aim?“

“Shut the fuck up,” Gavin said and felt a wet nose nudging his hand. “Just admit that you wished to have his skills.”

“Don’t project your fantasies on me, Detective,” Nines exclaimed, looking how Sumo cozened up to Gavin. “Besides, I’m able to perform 98% of stunts that were presented in the movie.”

“Bullshit,” Gavin dropped few kernels to Sumo, before Nines could say anything. He stretched his hand to grab the remote control and got back to the menu screen. “So what now?”

Nines’ lifted his head and blinked few times, looking at Gavin fumbling with buttons.

“Now?”

“Um, yeah,” Gavin prompted. “I still have half the bowl to eat. What are we watching now?”

Was Nines actually surprised that Gavin wanted to stay? He didn’t finish his popcorn and the rain outside was terrible, so thank you very much, but he would be not moving from the couch at least for another hour.

“There is this movie, that Officer Miller recommended to me two days ago,” Nines started, his eyes slightly out of focus. Going over his memories, that must be a fucking neat function, Gavin thought. How much Nines could remember? How much could he fit in that master mind of his?

“Okay, what is it?” Gavin asked, before more popcorn ended in his mouth.

One for him, one for Sumo. From the corner of his eyes, Gavin saw that Nines was scrolling thought different movies, but he was too preoccupied with overthrowing Sumo to the carpet, to see what was he actually happening on the screen. Then the flashing stopped, and room was filled with pink and blue of the cover photo and Gavin lifted his head to see –

“Oh hell no! It’s some chick flick movie! I’m not watching that shit!” he protested and casted angry glare towards Nines.

Gavin Reed didn’t watch romantic comedies. They were terrible and cringy and not fucking funny at all. If Nines thought that action movies were fake, he’d better be prepare for the most misrepresented genre of films.

“Would it hurt your pride to watch something that doesn’t include violence for ten minutes?” Nines asked and he was teasing, again, it was clear as day, that he was making fun of Gavin and he was fucking enjoying Reed’s frustration.

“Shut up! You can’t tell me you actually enjoy those types of movies?”

“I watched only four films that could be classified as romantic comedies, but I find them quite pleasant.”

“Pleasant?!” Okay, now Gavin was furious. “So, some corny shit is pleasant, but my badass movie is decent?!”

He just couldn’t believe Nines. What that deviancy had done to him? He’d bet it was Connor’s fault. That fucking twink with his soft heart and that “power of friendship” bullshit. No wonder that RK didn’t enjoy his movie, since he would rather watch two poor fuckers making some goo-goo eyes to each other for 90 minutes.

“That’s my opinion, Detective,” Nines added. “And I stand by it.”

It was the prime example of what Gavin had meant, when someone had different opinion than him. They were simply wrong.

But Nines didn’t look fazed, he didn’t look ashamed that he, Nines, the Terminator, the Killing Machine, Mr. Better, Faster, Stronger, was fond of some cliché romances. Did it fit his cold, superior demeanor? Hell no. Did it make him less Nines?

No. Not at all.

He was the same prick, that could intimidate any perp with one, cold stare, the same prick who would smack him in the head, if Gavin became too aggravated, the same prick, who wore cozy clothes and watched romantic comedies in his free time. Same person, different layers.

“Okay, fine,” Gavin finally answered and flicked few kernels at Nines’ head (it didn’t even reach him, android caught them midair and passed them to Sumo). “ I’ll watch that shit, but don’t expect me to keep my mouth shut during all that bullshit.”

“Detective, you were running your mouth during all films,” Nines exclaimed, a small smile playing on his lips. “I expected nothing less from you this time.”

But before Gavin could say anything, RK pressed play and the movie started.

It took Gavin 20 seconds to start complaining about the idiotic opening song and the blinding colorfulness of the movie.

It took him one minute to make Nines laugh.

It was past 11 pm and Gavin was heading home. The rain wasn’t as bad as before, but still it was unpleasant to walk like that for longer than few minutes. It didn’t make sense for Nines to walk him home, it didn’t make sense for Gavin to agree, but here they were, after 45 minutes of walking, almost near Gavin’s building.

Gavin switched Sumo’s leash to another hand. The dog was a gentle giant, but when he found particularly interesting heap of grass, he couldn’t be drag away from it. Looking to his left, Gavin saw Nines, in his black softshell jacket, some drops of water falling from his hood, the light from the streetlamp casting shadows over his face.

“Detective, I’ve told you it would wise to bring an umbrella,” Nines said, his eyes travelling down over Gavin’s soaked clothes.

“Yeah? And I fucking told you to shut up,” Gavin answered and turned to face his partner. “I’m not made from sugar, I’ll be fine.”

“Of course, Detective. There is only 4 grams of sugar in your blood,” Nines answered and thank fuck, Sumo finally was done with sniffing that grass. “The rest is reluctance and impudence.”

Gavin didn’t try to stiffen his laugh. He’d already fucked up, when he’d agreed to watch that romantic movie. There was no point in hiding anything right now. It was late, cold and as much as he wanted to go back to his bed and take a breath, he also didn’t feel like leaving.

“Look at you, you little joker,” Gavin teased and damn, there were already next to his building. “Maybe one day you could be half as funny as I am.”

“One can only wish, Detective,” Nines answered without missing a beat.

Their steps faltered in front of Reed’s apartment complex and Gavin couldn’t shake the feeling that Sumo’s leash suddenly became twice as heavy in his hands. He turned towards Nines, his back to the front door and for a moment they stood like that, Gavin kicking lightly the first step of the entrance, his eyes down casted, Nines standing still few steps away.

“I’ve told you it was a stupid idea to walk all the way here,” Gavin said, without looking towards android.

“Yeah and I told you to shut up,” Nines answered and there was a smile in his voice. “I was hoping to pass by the riverfront with Sumo, but I think it was enough activity for him for one day.”

“Yeah, the river is like 15 minutes from here, but at that time, you wouldn’t see shit. Better luck next time,” Gavin scratched the dog behind the ear, before he handed the leash back to Nines. Their fingers brushed for a second and Gavin wasn’t sure if Nines was always that warm, or his own hands were just freezing.

“How about next weekend?” Nines asked.

Gavin looked at him, his own hoodie slightly sliding from his head and damn, now Nines for sure would be able to see his curling, damp hair. But did it really matter? After today, Nines had enough material to blackmail Gavin for another ten years. At that point, Gavin couldn’t care less.

“Nah, stupid idea” Gavin answered and when he saw Nines’ smile dropping, he smirked, before turning towards the door. The Asshole, The Bastard –

“The best food trucks are on Tuesday. Your treat.”

The Fool.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're watching Shrek, because there is nothing more romantic than Shrek, right?  
> Oh, and Gavin was playing "Welcome to the Black Parade", so yeah, no starting that with G.
> 
> This time all of the games and films are real and I have no rights to them, all the titles and characters belong to their respective owners.


	5. Spinning on the color wheel of emotions

_May 23, 2039_

_Monday_

Thanks to deviancy, Nines was able to “experience” different emotions.

He “felt” satisfaction, when he accomplished his mission without any complications, he knew pensiveness in the moments, some touching lyrics and melody reached his ears, pride after beating rather troublesome boss in a game, amusement caused by sarcastic comment, joy after pleasant evening.

Still there were few emotions, which he couldn’t pinpointed and named, but he got familiar with the symptoms. Like for example, the feeling of inner warmness around his thirium pump, when he was spending time with Connor and Hank or the error that caused the tightness in his lower abdomen after the ending of the romance or the twitch inside, whenever he was close to –

However, today Nines experienced a new feeling and he wasn’t convince that he enjoyed it.

It started with the morning briefing.

The meeting wasn’t anything out of ordinary, Captain Fowler informed everyone about current status of the precinct and asked about ongoing cases, some officers gave few complains about deficiencies of life essentials in the break room and bathrooms, Detective Collins alerted about the possibility of new red ice dealer in their area.

The same as always.

Gavin didn’t want to let go of his coffee, despite the prohibition of drinks and food during briefings, but as Nines was looking at the detective, it might have been for the better. At least, Reed was so occupied with his drink that he didn’t run his mouth too much and the meeting went rather smoothly. Except, for the last part.

“Okay, everybody, last thing,” Fowler started and shuffled few papers in his hands. “It’s this time of the year again, when the precinct need to get the teen training over and done with.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Gavin mumbled into his coffee and sunk deeper into his seat.

Quite unusual reaction, considering that Reed wasn’t entirely out of coffee and the meeting was almost ending. It could only mean that Gavin’s reaction was caused by the –

“As always I need two volunteers who would conduct the self –defense course with high school kids. And as always I would choose the “volunteers” according to the disciplinary files.”

Nines couldn’t help but smirk at Gavin, who was trying to sunk as low in his seat as possible.

“Don’t give me that smirk, asshole,” he hissed and his elbow jabbed Nines in his chest.

“I don’t know what you are talking about, Detective.”

“Reed,” Captain Fowler announced, turning slightly towards them. “Congratulations, you get yourself a ticket to the high school. Again.”

“I have a ongoing case, Fowler. I can’t abandon it to roll around the gym and do somersaults.”

“Thank god, you have a partner now, ha? He will take good care of the case you are so worried about.” Gavin’s grip around the mug tightened, but he didn’t say anything, so captain Fowler continued. “To make you feel better, you’ll take Lune with you.”

“Fuck no!” the voice from the back of the room announced.

“Officer Lune,” Captain Fowler addressed the man, annoyance clear in his tone. “Because of that kind of behavior I’m sending you. You’ve been here for 6 months and your disciplinary file is almost as big as Reed’s. It’s your last chance. So you’d better behave.”

Nines could hear more comments under officer Lune’s nose, but one look from Captain Fowler effectively shut him.

“Okay, you are all dismissed.”

The group started to flee through the door, officers and detectives scattered around the floor, but Nines noted that Gavin wasn’t in a rush. He slowly stood up, stretched with a cup still in his hands, high above his head, his shirt ridding up, exposing part of his stomach.

“What the fuck, Nines?!” Gavin hissed, when Nines nudged his hip with his own, throwing him of balance. “I could have spilled my coffee.”

“You provoked me, Detective,” Nines smoothly answered, his hands innocently laced behind his back. “You’ve done something so reckless, how could I not react?”

“You are a little shit, you know that?” Gavin said, but there was no real malice in his voice. The tone was playful, light, teasing.

Joy, yes, that what Nines felt right now.

“I’ve learn from the worst.” Until now, Nines didn’t pay attention to their surroundings, but now from the corner of his eyes, he saw Officer Lune, standing in the doorway and looking at them. “But I believe you might have a competition now.”

Gavin’s head snapped in the direction of the door and Officer Lune quickly averted his eyes, shuffling outside of the room.

Too quickly to be casual. Too late to not be caught staring.

“Yo, Mothman!” Gavin said, making the other man stopped in his track. “Bring your police uniform to school and maybe I won’t mistake you with other kids.”

Pang.

The error triggered the unpleasant pang somewhere in his chest, close to his thirium pump. Few notification popped in his HUD, but Nines couldn’t piece the information together. New feeling, the one, he wasn’t familiar with, the one he couldn’t name.

“Bring your better attitude, Reed, and maybe I won’t punch you in your face,” Officer Lune snarled and took a step closer to Gavin.

It was a small chance that Gavin would start a fight, considering his current mood. However, one quick scan of Officer Lune showed Nines that the man stress level was exceptionally high. It didn’t help that Gavin moved a little closer, challenging gleam in his narrowed eyes, holding the eye contact.

“Try me, bitch.”

It was enough for Officer Lune to launched himself at Gavin. There was a great force in his attack, however, Lune didn’t even have a chance to touch Reed as detective swiftly twisted his arm and pushed him to the ground.

Nines should have interfered. It wasn’t an appropriate behavior in work environment, especially between two police officers, but he knew better than mixing himself between Gavin’s fights. There was no real danger involved and he believed Gavin wouldn’t go further than intimidate a kid.

“Your bite is as weak as your bark, dipshit,” Gavin hissed, cocky smile on his face as he let go of Lune’s hand. “ Don’t start shit with me.”

Before they pushed past Officer Lune, Nines took a last quick scan of the man.

Something was wrong.

His dilated pupils, elevated heart rate and spike of hormones could be explain by a physical encounter. But the long, unblinking gaze, which followed Gavin to his desk was unsettling.

And then officer Lune smirked.

Androids couldn’t feel pain, but Nines believed that the whatever the unpleasant pang was doing to his system could be compare to human’s hurt.

Usually, Nines didn’t pay attention to younger officers. Of course, he worked with them on various occasions, but the interactions had never been meaningful, just professional procedures. He remembered Officer Chen complaining about the new rookies, how hot-headed and immature they were, how they paraded in their uniforms like proud peacocks.

When he looked at Officer Lune, he couldn’t agree more with that description.

Young officer was standing in the entry way of the break room, chatting with detective Filo about the last football game. In his hand he was holding the bottle with thick liquid that Nines could presume was a smoothie, his lips stretched into a cocky grin. From time to time, his eyes drifted from detective Filo’s face towards the bullpen, one desk in particular caught his interest. Each gaze lasted to 12 seconds max, but it still made Nines’ job a little harder.

Officer Clarence Lune, born June 9, 2008.

Quick check on the Internet showed Nines some articles about Lune’s football achievements, his father’s theater, the online page of his collage yearbook.

_ Most likely to become a superstar.  _

What did it even mean?

“What a fucking boring day,” Gavin started and Nines automatically moved his gaze towards his partner. “I’m heading to the gym, I’ll be back in an hour.”

Detective pushed himself of the desk and moved towards the locker room.

“Don’t hurt yourself, Detective,” Nines prompted, lifting his head slightly to see Gavin hovering over him.

“Don’t miss me too much, nerd,” Gavin said and blew a little bit of air at Nines’ head, messing few strands of android’s hair.

Nines turned towards the screen with a smile. Amusement, yes, he knew that feeling very well.

But then his eyes drifted back to the entry way and Lune was still standing there, his eyes trailing after Gavin.

What were Lune’s intentions?

It didn’t seem that he wanted to fight Reed, his stress level wasn’t increased anymore, his heart rate was only slightly higher. However, his eyes – Lune was looking at Gavin, like a predator watched his prey, like he was looking for the best moment to attack and devour Reed. It was obscene and ill and it made Nines filled with –

“Hello, Nines,” Connor’s voice cut through his thoughts. “Are you alright?”

No. Nines believed he was not alright. But he also didn’t feel like discussing that with Connor. Not now.

“I’m fine. Why are you asking?”

Connor was perched on the edge of his desk, his legs crossed at his ankles, watching Nines with a small smile.

“Your led,” Connor prompted, tapping his own temple. “It was a little too much red for a moment.”

Of course, Connor would notice that something wasn’t right, but Nines hoped that the android wouldn’t push the subject.

“Your concern is unnecessary, Connor,” Nines answered and nodded his head towards the back of the room. The change of subject could work on the other android just fine. “It’s rather unusual to see you unaccompanied for so long. ”

Connor let out a low chuckle, before pointing at the glass office in front of him.

“Hank is talking with captain Fowler about our week off. He believes that he had better chances with convincing the captain on his own, rather than with me in the room.”

The only reasonable explanation why Lieutenant didn’t want his partner to participate in the conversation was the fact, that Connor must have been the main subject. And probably the main argument and motivation for the vacations.

“What about Detective Reed?” Connor started. “He didn’t look too happy about the self – defense course.”

“It’s his fifth year in a row. He will fuss for a day but he’ll manage just fine.”

Connor let out a soft hum and wide smile appeared on his face, when he saw Hank exiting the office.

“Good thing he was paired up with Clarence,” Connor slipped down from the desk and took few steps towards the break room. “Those two deserve each other.”

Nines wasn’t sure if Connor was able to catch the glimpse of his led, when he was walking away, but if he did, Nines was glad that he said nothing. The madly red light spun even faster, when officer Lune moved past his desk towards the locker room.

It was Nines’ sixth visit to the gym. As an android, he hadn’t found any use in being here, apart from dragging Gavin back to work or finding other officers. Now, he wasn’t sure why he came here. Whatever the new feeling was, it was powerful enough to make Nines do things he didn’t find logical explanation for.

He stood near the back exit, leaning on the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest. The smell of sweat was potent, the laughs and groans resounding and Nines found the whole place rather unappealing and chaotic.

It didn’t take him long to locate Gavin. His partner was doing some chin-ups on the bar in the back. His tank top was laying next to him on the bench, his muscles flexing and on full display. 

Nines knew that his partner’s condition was remarkable. Gavin’s body fat totaled to 16%, despite him not shunning away from most foods. However, his devotion towards regular exercises made it up for few bad habits. On many occasions, Nines could see his partners strength and form. Gavin was able to outrun most of the younger officers during chases, or knock down perps who were twice his weight.

Gavin Reed was a force to be reckoned with, psychically and mentally.

Nines almost missed the fact that he was smiling the whole time watching Gavin train. He received the error about the sudden spike of temperature in his system, few communications popping in his vision, but he didn’t need to analyze them to know what he felt.

He was proud. Proud to be partnered with someone so capable like Gavin, someone who was constantly pushing his own limits.

In that moment, when Gavin dropped down from the bar, another person stepped into the gym.

Lune.

The _damn_ superstar.

The ugly feeling crept back to Nines, making his hands tightening around his arms. There was a hint of anger, when he saw young officer flaunting around the gym, a little bit of distaste every time that man stole a glance towards Gavin, but the feeling that was resonating inside him was almost primal and blinding. The bug made his system unstable.

Gavin was now using a hyperextension bench and either he didn’t notice Lune doing circles around him, or he simply didn’t care about the officer.

Even though, Gavin referred to the Lune as a Mothman, a nickname he gained after working for his first three months on a night shift, Nines didn’t notice any major interactions between them during their work. Lune appeared few times on the crime scenes or went past by their desks in the bullpen, talking rather loudly, but other than that, he didn’t have many possibilities to communicate with Gavin.

But the looks he was sending Gavin, his eyes moving over his exposed chest, taking the image of muscular legs, wide torso, sweat dripping down Reed’s back.

Dilated pupils. Elevated heart beat. Sweaty hands. Increased level of testosterone.

_Arousal._

Lune _desired_ Gavin.

Obviously.

People led by desire aimed to be engage in sexual intercourse with the person they found attractive. Nines didn’t need more proof to know that Lune was interested in Gavin. However, he wasn’t sure if he could say the same thing about his partner.

Nines took a good look at the young officer.

He was training with punching dummy in the middle of the gym, his tank top showing his toned arms, short shorts brought out his athletic physics. Lune had ashy blond hair, blue narrowed eyes, full lips, strong jaw, prominent cheekbones, and was precisely 6 inches taller than Gavin. According to internet sources, Lune’s appearance was similar to few famous actors, who were prompted as “exceptionally sexy.”

Ah, yes, a superstar potential. How could he forget.

Nines ran a quick diagnostic over his system. The pang wouldn’t disappear, what’s more, he started to feel something else, akin to disappointment building inside him.

There was 94% chance that Gavin would agree to Lune’s proposition and Nines couldn’t trust himself enough to stay there any longer.

Later that day, Nines was sitting in his room and going over today’s events. All his memories were clear, but because of his feelings, it was impossible to analyze them.

It bothered him.

It bothered him that he was barely able to contain his irritation when saw Reed and Lune entering the bullpen together. It bothered him that tomorrow two men would spend the whole day exchanging physical contact. It bothered him that he cared so deeply about something that shouldn’t be his concern.

Why the pang wouldn’t pass? From what he saw, Reed was capable of defending himself against Lune, he wasn’t in any danger. He discovered Lune’s intentions and by any means, it wasn’t longer his worry. It wasn’t Nines business with whom Gavin decided to sleep.

But it still bothered him.

He let his gaze slipped down to his desk. A small sketchbook was open on the unfinished sketch. Nines wondered how long he’s been staring outside of window, pondering, without actually drawing.

The memory of Gavin with his hood slipping from his head, few wavy strands falling on his eyes, few drops sliding down his cheek. Nines began working on the crook of Reed’s smirk, his light stable, a little scar just above his top lip.

Nines had few sketches of Gavin. There were also few of Connor, Lieutenant Anderson, Officer Chen and random humans from the precinct. Nines even tried drawing Suma and Satan, but he decided to keep practicing drawing people. It gave him better understanding of emotions, how the little quirks of their brows, a small movements of their lips indicated different feelings.

Gavin’s face was his favourite to draw. Partially because it was the face that he was the most familiar with, partially because it was the most challenging one. Despite many attempts, Nines had never been able to capture the essence of Gavin’s appeal. He always found something that didn’t seem right and no matter how hard he was trying to improve the drawing, it had never lived up to the real Gavin.

Nothing could lived up to Gavin.

Oh.

_Oh._

Nines let go of the pencil, his hands around the place where his thirium pump was. He looked at his drawing one more time, Gavin’s eyes looking back at him.

Oh.

Jealousy.

Nines was filled with jealousy. He knew he was supposed analyze the evidences, but his eyes were constantly slipping to the empty seat in front of Reed’s desk. He was jealous of some arrogant rookie, because he could spend few hours sparing with Gavin, when Nines had been building his bond with Reed for 158 days.

It was illogical.

But it didn’t make Nines’ feeling any less real.

Intimate relation could possibly lead to strong emotional bond, and as much as Nines didn’t want to think about that outcome, he couldn’t cross it out. Lune could have whatever he and Gavin had been building all that time. He could explore a part of Gavin’s life that Nines wouldn’t be able to, they could bond quicker, in more effective way. 

Because, no matter how many hours Nines would devote to getting to know Gavin, there still would be some matters where he wouldn’t be enough. No matter how many illogical feelings he would experience, he’d never became more human.

Even if it wouldn’t be Lune, someone would come and charm Gavin away and Nines would feel jealous again.

Nines blinked few times, when suddenly the message from Connor popped in front of him.

_You know you can go to him, right?_

Nines’ eyes drifted straight to Connor, sitting at the edge of Hank’s desk and smiling at him.

I’m in the middle of work, Connor.

_No. No, you’re not._ Connor’s smile was wide and warm, reaching his eyes. _Just go to him_. _I’ll cover for you._

No. He shouldn’t do that.

But before Nines would be able to run statistics and convince himself that it was an awful idea, he pushed himself from the desk and moved towards the elevator. 

“Do you think it would help?” Hank asked, over the brim of his mug.

“I don’t know,” Connor answered and sat down on the chair next to lieutenant. “At least, he’ll stop scaring people around the precinct.”

After entering the high school, Nines was led to one of the school gyms, where the course took place.

When Nines approached the entry, Gavin was ending the theoretical part of the course, motioning towards the big screen behind him.

“Okay, cubs, move your asses to the mattresses. Pick your partners,” Gavin’s voice was booming over the empty walls of the gym.

Nines stood in the shadowy part of the area, near the bleaches, a perfect spot to see the course.

He looked at Gavin, in his dark navy t-shirt and sweatpants with DPD logo in the corner, how the detective moved around the floor and assisted different students. Assist in his own way, of course. Reed was pushing their feet to check their balance, shouting from the other side of the room about right posture.

“What are you aiming at?! His forehead? What is it, a friendly pat? Go for his throat.”

What a man.

Nines stood like that, for few minutes, his eyes switching between Gavin and Lune. Young officer mingled between the students for awhile, before standing next to the detective. Gavin’s arm were crossed over his chest, his eyes not leaving the students in front of them, but Lune’s gaze was moving over Reed’s bulking arms, before settling on his face. 

It took a lot of Nines to not eardrop on their conversation, but whatever Lune said, it brought a small smirk to Gavin’s lips.

Now, Nines was confident that it had been a poor decision to come here. He didn’t know what he was trying to prove, it was absurd and irresponsible, abandoning his work, for what? For getting more proof on the matter he’s already known?

But then Gavin’s eyes caught his from across the room and the smile he gave Nines was almost worth the struggle. His own smile must have looked weak comparing to Gavin’s grin, but he lost control over his own smiles a while ago. There was no point in hiding anymore, so Nines moved towards the centre of the gym, meeting Reed half way.

“Well, well, well,” Gavin prompted, standing now few steps away. “You _do_ miss me.”

“I was send to inspect your work, Detective,” Nines said, his hands slotting behind his back. “It is not a personal visit.”

Lies were necessary evil in Nines’ mind. Most of the time, he refused to stomp down to that level of treachery, but the truth was still too fragile to be said out loud.

“I’m on my best behavior, detective,” Gavin said with a wicked grin.

Nines wanted to comment that few minutes ago, Gavin was encouraging one of the students to perform a rear naked choke on her friend, a hold that wasn’t even included in the course, but two voices interrupted.

“Who is he?”

“I don’t know. But he’s cute.”

“Okay, Samantha! What did I say about distractions?” Gavin turned around towards two girls, who were sheepishly looking at them. “When you are checking out cute boys, your friend could smack you in the head and leave you to bleed.”

“But she didn’t,” the girl answered, crossing her arms over her chest.

“ _But she didn’t”_ Gavin parroted back in a high pitched voice. “But she damn could!”

Detective took few steps towards the group, motioning towards girls to take their positions. Gavin looked at him, over the shoulder, that twisted smile still on his lips.

“You’re staying, right?”

Of course. Of course, he’s staying. How could he not?

At 3:15 pm, they were exiting the school building.

Gavin was walking next to him, drinking his water under Nines’ keen eye. It was uncanny, how Reed was able to function properly in that state of dehydration. Despite the lack of caffeine, his stress level remained rather low, his endorphins level quite high, almost textbook example of satisfied human being.

“You seem to be in a good mood, Detective, “ Nines started, when Gavin was finally done with empting his bottle. He tossed it to his sports bag and shrugged.

“Yeah, I’m fucking done with that self-defense bullshit. Everyone would be happy leaving that fucking gym.”

Actually, Nines could think about at least one person that wasn’t happy.

Lune had been rather irritated, when Reed walked out with the android. During the whole course, he remained quiet and professional, letting Gavin lead. Possibly, Lune actually believed that Nines was send to assess their job and considering Captain Fowler’s warning, he needed to keep his attitude in check.

Nines had tried not to get engaged with their course too much. He’d assisted few times during the practical part, but Gavin was more than capable to handle the whole event by himself.

“How’s your cooperation with Officer Lune?” Nines asked, despite his better judgment.

It would be more beneficial for his system to not know, but his curiosity took the best of him. Ultimately, Nines joined the course at noon, there had been plenty of time for Lune to convince Reed to his… arrangement.

“Fucking Mothman,” Gavin hissed and swung his sports bag to another shoulder. “I mean, he was doing his job during the course, but when we had a break, he was fucking talking to me about some bullshits. Like football, collage parties and how long is his dick. You know me, I don’t give a fuck about football. Or his dick. Fucking fuckboy.”

Nines’ led spun a quick yellow, checking the meaning of a fuckboy, before settling on calm blue. The sudden lack of the pang in his chest, leave him speechless. The wave of relief that washed over his system was overwhelming.

“And you know what his party trick is? Perfect pitch! He looked at me like I was supposed to be impressed. Like, what the fuck even is a perfect pitch?!”

“It’s the ability to recognize the pitch of a note or produce any given note,” Nines automatically explain. His system wasn’t properly loading yet, different windows popping in front of his eyes and he dismissed all of the alerts, leaving only the most important one in the top corner.

_Gavin wasn’t interested in Lune._

“Yeah, well, I bet you can also do that,” Gavin said, before fishing out his phone from the bag. “Have you seen that trailer I’ve sent you? It’s an old movie about the married couple of assassins, who – Nines?”

Nines didn’t even notice that his body stopped moving. Gavin was now standing few steps ahead of him leveling android with curious gaze. However, in the moment Reed reached for his phone, he brushed past him, his elbow nudging Nines exposed arm by pure accident and his system went into sudden overdrive. It only lasted a few seconds, but his synthetic skin peeled out, revealing the white plate. 

“Are you watching the trailer now?” Gavin asked, his brows arched. “Does it take too much power to walk and watch?”

“Detective, we still have over four hours of our shift,” Nines managed to answer.

“Come on, Nines, you ditched your work in the morning. Might as well use your little rebellion on something fun,” Gavin stated with a smirk and Nines easily fell into step beside him.

Thanks to deviancy, Nines was able to experience different emotions.

He knew distraction, when he tried to concentrate on the witness’ statement, but Gavin was flipping him off in the background, he experience disgust, when someone look at his partner, the way Lune looked at him, admiration, when he watched Gavin accomplished tasks, which were almost impossible for an average human. Joy, whenever Nines heard Reed’s laugh.

But today, looking at Gavin fiddling with different cans of cat food, mumbling about some bizarre commercials and looking at him in the way, no one did before, Nines received various communication about his system instability, caused by another feeling.

A new feeling, which was familiar, but at the same time so foreign.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, okaaay.  
> I know that technically, androids cannot feel. Or rather "feel" in the way that people do. There's no chemical reactions, no hormones, no impulses to the brain.  
> But they react. They are able to recognize different emotions and experience... something.  
> So, there's that.


	6. Rodzina means family

“Look at that poor bastard,” Gavin said, looking outside the window. “He doesn’t know yet.”

They were back in that Range Rover with a fancy air freshener, the car parked few steps away from a luxurious villa. Marble sculptures in the garden, so much lights like it was fucking Christmas, fence high on 14 feet. A fucking American dream.

“I believe he was aware of the consequences of his action, Detective,” Nines exclaimed after a while. “He knows.”

Some rock song was quietly playing in the background. Gavin spent most of the time, drumming his fingers on his arm, his head turned away from Nines and towards the perp’s house. If the RK was irritated by his fidgeting, he didn’t say anything. Or maybe after almost half a year, he got used to it.

“If he knows, then that is a lame last meal,” Gavin pointed out. “What even is it? Fish sticks?”

Nines let out a small laugh and Gavin bit down his bottom lip to suppress his own grin.

“I believe that what they are, Detective,” Nines agreed. “Dinosaurs shape.”

It shouldn’t be that easy to spy on the guy, especially in the middle of the day. Even though, Nines had his Superman vision, Gavin could also easily count all the mugs in guy’s kitchen. But perhaps that’s what you get if you had such a big fucking windows in your house. Two assholes sitting in front of your villa and critiquing your food choices.

Gavin moved his gaze from the guy to two small figures sitting around the kitchen table. The boy was in his early teens, not fucking happy about the dinosaur fish sticks, but the little girl was smiling from ear to ear, showing different shapes to her father. Perfect family, in their perfect little home. God, Gavin felt a little bit sick.

“What would you do in his place? In your last moments before being caught?”

Nines’ voice rarely got that quiet, only when he wasn’t sure if he should have spoken at all. Probably chances that Gavin would answer were very low, but still, that little deviant tried. Gavin didn’t mind answering.

“I would probably feed my cats and go to the bar to get shit faced,” Gavin said. “Probably call Tina, maybe shoot quick text to Anderson, something like “see you in hell, old man” or “I’ll be warming a spot in jail for you.”

Gavin knew, that if he turned around, Nines’ led would be spinning yellow.

It didn’t feel right to leave RK out of the list of people he would actually want to say goodbye, before disappearing for who knows how long. But at the same time, if his life would go to shit, he wouldn’t want Nines to remember him like that. He wouldn’t want their last conversation to be a drunk mumbling. And obviously, Nines would know where to look for him, he would know and he would come and try to make things better, like he always did, but then, if the police would come and Nines would be next to him, and saw him like that, Gavin would – he would –

“What about you?” Gavin asked, his voice too thick to his liking, “Would you try your luck with fish sticks?”

It’s weak and stupid, but Gavin’s mind was still preoccupied with his previous thoughts and any attempts at humor would ended up that flat. Part of him was actually curious what Nines’ answer would be, but other part, the part who was still dealing with Nines barging into his life, was a little bit defensive.

“I would like to meet with few people,” Nines answered after a while. “Say some things I was not able to say to that point.”

And when Gavin was almost sure that Nines was done with his oh so general answer, RK’s voice was back to normal, with a hint of teasing.

“And of course, call and warn you. Because if there’s a world where I’ve committed a crime, it must have been because of you.”

Gavin let out a small laugh, his head turning towards Nine. RK was doing poor job at trying to hide his smile, his eyes were warm and shining and Gavin was really fucking glad that he decided to finally face his partner.

“Well, in my vision, you were obviously not existing, because normally you’ve never let me do something so stupid like get involved with some identity theft scam.”

“I’m flattered that you think that I have such an influence over you.”

“Yeah, you’re right. You don’t.”

“Detective.”

Gavin’s head spun towards the window, just in time to see the prep closing the gate behind himself.

He wordlessly wrenched the door open and stepped out of the vehicle. He didn’t need to look behind to know that Nines was doing the same and walking to the other side of the sidewalk. Gavin waited for the guy to get past his own property, before stepping in front of him.

“Anthon Mosey?”

The perp stopped in his track, his brows furrowed and then panic settled in his eyes. Before he could stepped back, Nines was already behind his back, the man caged between two detectives.

“You're under arrest.”

Later that day, Gavin was sitting at his desk, working on the report. He was almost done with it, checking if he missed any important details, when he felt someone’s eyes on him. Gavin lifted his head slightly, looking over his screen and there they were, steal – blue eyes staring right back at him.

Nines.

He didn’t avert his eyes right away, he didn’t say anything, he just stared and smirked, before going back to his own screen.

What a weirdo.

Gavin covered his own smile with a mug.

“Detective Reed, Nines,” Connor’s voice was almost as annoying as his face. When Gavin looked at the android, standing next to their desks, with his smile and soft eyes, it was almost hard to believe that Connor and Nines had the same face. They were nothing alike.

“You currently hold the best arrest record in the precinct,” Connor added. “Congratulations.”

“Just doing our job,” Gavin shrugged, because what else he was supposed to say ? That they were working their butts off? That very often they were working after hours, in Gavin’s or Nines’ house? Was he supposed to rub his victory in Connor’s face? “Maybe if you wouldn’t waste your time chitchatting around the precinct, you would also be able to catch someone.”

But Connor looked unfazed by his words, even leaned a little bit over his desk, making himself fucking comfortable in Gavin’s space. Reed knew that his comments towards Connor lost the edge long time ago, they weren’t friends, they didn’t hate each other, but still he preferred Connor on the other side of the bullpen.

“I just wanted to say, that it’s wonderful to watch you two work so good together,” Connor said and something about his smile didn’t sit right with Gavin.

“Connor.”

Nines’ voice was cold, persistent, his face impassive. It was a warning. Whatever Connor was doing, it also rub Nines the wrong way.

“Do you want some tips on partnership or what?” Gavin asked, his arms crossed over his chest. “ Trouble in paradise?”

It wasn’t even funny, but Connor let out a low chuckle and even Nines gave him a small smile.

God, those two couldn’t be more different.

Connor with his playful, stupid smile and eyes that were just too warm, too soft. He looked like some kind of teddy bear or puppy. His torso was too narrowed, his sweaters too funky. Even the way he was holding himself, open stance, relaxed shoulder, he tried way too hard to look approachable. He was looking like a walking headache.

And then, there was Nines.

With his small smiles and light eyes, his high cheekbones, with that freckle next to his mouth, his long neck, his perfect posture. And maybe he and Connor started with the same face, but the way Nines’ brows were arching so slightly, when he found something interesting, the way his eyes narrowed when he spotted a mistake in Gavin’s report, the way his jaw tensed, when something tear jerking happened in the movie, the way he looked at Gavin – He was nothing like Connor.

“My partnership with Hank is stable, Detective, thank you for asking,” Connor said with a wide smile. Too wide, too much teeth. “I was thinking about celebrating your success with a dinner. How about on Friday? Nines told me you are a fan of sweet potatoes, Detective, and I found an interesting recipe I want to try.”

First of all, too much information.

Second of all, god, that chirpy voice was annoying.

Third of all, what the fuck?

Gavin shot a quick glance towards Nines, but his partner was looking at Connor like he grew a second head. So Nines didn’t know about Connor’s little plan. And looking at his madly spinning led, he must have had his own doubts about the whole situation. Gavin was so fucking close to saying no, because… A Friday dinner? With Connor and Anderson? What the fuck was wrong with the world lately?

“I’ll make Nines try all the food, before I taste it. You’re not gonna poison me that easily, Skynet” Gavin said, before taking a sip from his mug.

Oh the look on Nines’ face, when he heard that Gavin had agreed, was priceless.

Yes, Gavin could admit that it was one of those decision that his mouth made for him, before his brain could stop him, but hey, at least, he made a state of the art surprised.

“I won’t try to poison you, Detective. I’ve received many compliments for my cooking skills,” Connor said, before turning his head slightly towards another android. “Nines?”

“We’ll be there,” Nines answered, without taking his eyes from Gavin. “You can send me all the details later.”

And like that, Connor was gone from their desks with little too much bounce in his step and too much delight on his face.

Gavin wouldn’t say he regretted his decision, but why the hell was Connor so fucking happy?

He turned towards Nines to say, that he wasn’t joking about RK tasting his food, that Connor was just too joyful to be trusted, but the words died in his throat.

Nines didn’t stop looking at Gavin. He said nothing, just simply stared. When Gavin caught his eyes, Nines gave one of those little smirks and waited for Gavin to go back to work, before turning toward his own screen.

What a weirdo.

It was Saturday morning and Gavin was sitting in his kitchen, drinking coffee. It was still early, a little too early to wake up on a free day, but Satan was fucking meowing since like 7 am and fucker wouldn’t stop until Gavin moved from the bed. Normally, Nines would be indulged in his bullshit at the crack of the dawn, but after yesterday’s fuckery at Anderson’s they have split to their separate houses.

Gavin wouldn’t say that it was nice. It was decent, the food was okay, Anderson wasn’t drunk, Sumo was glued to Nines the whole time, making Connor a little bit jealous. The whole evening was the optimal doze of familiarity and awkwardness. They wouldn’t do it again anytime soon.

The sound of his front door opening made Gavin peeked from the kitchen. Satan was already dancing around Nines’ leg, still trying his best to trip the other, but when Nines’ hand found that one spot on his back, the cat quickly gave up. That little fucker. He could at least pretend a little longer.

“Hello, detective Reed,” Nines said, after looking from the cat towards Gavin. “I didn’t expect you to be awake.”

Now, when RK moved from the shadowy part of his corridor, Gavin saw that he was wearing one of Reed’s oversize hoodie. There were cat’s hair all over the front, Nines’ hair was messier than usual and even if it wasn’t the first time Gavin has saw him like that, today if hit different.

“Yeah, it’s your fault,” he answered, before looking back at kitchen counter. “Satan was complaining since 7 am and you weren’t here to hold his paw.”

“Is that so?” Nines ducked down to pat the cat one more time, before stepping closer towards Gavin. His brows furrowed for a moment, regarding all the ingredients on the counter top. “What are you making?”

Gavin’s eyes moved towards his partner, a twisted smirk on his lips.

“Why don’t you tell me, Detective?” Gavin teased. “What does it look like?”

Nines’ led was spinning yellow, his eyes moving from the filling in the bowl, to the dough already cut into a small discs, a pot of water boiling on the hob.

“Pierogi?” Nines asked, his brows arched like he couldn’t believe that Gavin could do something like that.

What did he think? That Gavin was buying already prepared meals? The catering shit was expensive! Besides, Nines must have been at least one time around when Gavin was meal prepping for a week. He shouldn’t be that surprised that Gavin could cook.

“What? Is something fucking wrong with pierogi?” Gavin asked and nudged the android with his hip. “Move your ass over here. You’re gonna help, big guy.”

Before Nines could open his mouth, Gavin pushed a small piece of dough into RK’s hands and motioned for him to grab the spoon with a filling.

“You’re adding it in the middle, like that,” Gavin took his own circle of dough and stuffed it with the filling. “Then you fold it in half and pinch the edges together, so the all good stuff wouldn’t come out, when cooking.”

There was something endearing in watching Nines, the most advance android, trying to pinch the dough without ripping it. And look at that dumpling! It looked so fucking small in his big hands! After he finished, he shot Gavin quick glance.

“It’s not my expertise.”

“ Fucking excuses,” Gavin said and showed Nines where he could put down his piece. “We have hundred more to go, so you’ll have time to practice.”

They stood like that, hip to hip, in Gavin’s little kitchen, making pierogi for a next half an hour. The sun was streaming through kitchen windows, shining on the already made, steaming batch, the smell of caramelized onion lingering in the air. Somewhere in the background, Satan was making his rounds around the living room.

Nines didn’t ask questions. He was focused on the task. Only from time to time, his eyes would moved from the dough to Gavin, but other than that, he didn’t push. But Gavin knew, he felt, that the unspoken question was hanging above their heads. Maybe, somehow, Nines had already pieced all the information together and he didn’t need Gavin’s answer. Maybe Gavin didn’t need to tell him.

“My grandma used to make them,” he started, his eyes glued to his own fingers working around the dough. “She’s never knew how to make small portions. She said that if she tried ,it could messed up the proportions or something. She would wake up on like insane early hour and by 9 am, every surface in the kitchen would be covered in dumplings.”

Damn, he must be mumbling. Fucking memories, always got the best of him. There was a fucking reason, why he didn’t talk about his personal matters. What was the point?

“Pierogi are traditional cuisine in Central and Eastern Europe. Was your grandmother from those regions?”

“Ugh, yeah, she was Polish,” Gavin answered and his eyes followed Nines to the stove, where he fished out another portion from the pot. “I fetched that dry curd from Polish shop, but still, I feel like it’s not the same. She didn’t leave any recipe, she was always like eyeballing the whole thing and I helped her so many times, so I thought I would remember, but – ”

Gavin cut himself midsentence.

It was too much. Too much information, he was way too far away from his comfort zone, and the wet, slimy feeling inside his chest was suffocating. He wouldn’t cry. Why would he get emotional about making fucking pierogi? It’s been almost twenty years, he’s already been through all the sobs and tears, and now –

Now, all he had was those bitter-sweet memories.

“She was one hell of a lady,” Gavin said, because after not talking about it for so long, all the words were just trying to escape from his mouth, and he knew – he _fucking knew,_ it would happened at some point. “She’d learned English at like 54 just so she could talk with her grandchildren and prove some fuckers wrong. She was so charming and witty and took no shit from nobody.”

“I can see the resemblance,” Nines said and when Gavin raised his head, RK was standing right next to him.

From the way that Nines angled his body, Gavin could see it was an invitation for him to step closer, if he needed that kind of support.

The physical part was always the worst, so Gavin didn’t move from his spot.

It didn’t feel good to open up, damn, and to think that those fuckers at therapy sessions wanted him to spill his guts in front of a total stranger. Hell no! Thank fuck, that now his voice wasn’t shaky and he managed to keep all the emotional turmoil mostly to himself.

But still, Gavin felt like a fool. Mumbling, weak, pathetic fool. He should have kept all of that to himself, he meant to drag all those fond memories to the grave with him. Only fools felt the need to share things with others. But –

He’s been a fool around RK for some time now and somehow he survived.

“Do you know any words in Polish?” Nines asked, when they were making their last batch of dumplings.

Gavin gave him a twisted smile.

“Only the best ones.”

“Why do I have a feeling they are all swear words?”

Gavin laughed and pushed Nines in the shoulder, leaving a flour print of his hand on the black hoodie.

“Because those are the best, _głupku_ ,” Gavin answered and felt a small satisfaction when Nines’ led blinked a quick yellow, before RK fixed him with a stare.

“Very mature, Detective.”

“That is not even the best one. I also know, _kur_ –

“I regret that I’ve asked.”

Later, when all the pierogi where finally transferred to plates and hid away from cats, when Nines sat down on the floor and played with Satan, some crappy rom com playing in the background, Gavin finally ate the dumplings.

It was the closest taste to his grandma’s cooking, he’d ever managed to reach.

It was Wednesday, one of those evening when work followed them home. They were bundled on the couch, few different testimonies scattered between them and Gavin knew that the victim was lying, but why the hell would she lie. It didn’t make fucking sense, especially since –

A black blur flashed by the fridge.

His head snapped in that direction, before casting a quick glance towards Nines. RK was already staring at the gap between his fridge and cupboards, where the cat disappeared.

Oh, so, they’re doing it today.

After few minutes, the black blur was passing behind the shelves in his living room, finally resurfacing next to the scratching post. Very slowly, she approached the couch, her eye trailed on Nines.

“Nines,” Gavin said with a smirk. “Meet the Grim Reaper.”

She hopped on the table and sat, between all of Gavin’s notes and mugs, her tailed wrapped in front of her paws.

She was a beauty. Not in a way, Satan was, with his fluffy grey fur, perfect teeth and shining green eyes. Her fur was mostly black, with few white patches on her belly. Her right ear was damage, she lost her left eye and there was a big bite mark on her neck that hadn’t healed properly. It’s not a fucking surprise that after all of that, she had almost as deep trust issues as Gavin. She’s stayed in Reed’s bedroom or bathroom every time he had guests. Which wasn’t that often, at least, not before Nines.

“Grim Reaper and Satan, hm?” RK said, before turning his head towards Gavin. “Do you like to surround yourself with demons, Detective?”

“It’s more like _they_ like to stick with _me_ ,” Gavin answered and scratched the cat under her chin. “She, Satan…”

On cue, the grey cat appeared on the other side of the couch and with few loud meows demanded from Nines to make a room for him on his lap.

“…You,” Gavin finished, looking at RK picking Satan with ease, before the cat could destroy all of Gavin’s notes.

“Oh, _I_ am a demon, Detective?” Nines asked, his brows arched in the mocking surprise.

“Yeah, you, you dickhead,” Gavin answered. “You trained my cat to wake up at 7 am on the weekends. Now, you are part of this hell.”

The next smile that Nines gave him was small, but genuine and it made Gavin’s chest hurt.

Because in that moment, Nines looked like he didn’t mind at all that those little cuts on his skin, cat’s fur on his clothes, crumbled papers around them, Gavin’s annoying presence by his side till the early morning hours. He didn’t mind being stuck in hell with Gavin.

The thought hurt, it hurt so fucking much, because it’s awaken something that Gavin was convinced died inside him long time ago.

It gave him hope.

Gavin didn’t know what was wrong with people lately and why they’ve started to invite him to different things, but here he was, another weekend in the row, indulged in some social outing. 

“Okay, you guys find a table and I’ll go get a first round of drinks,” Tina exclaimed, before leaving them in the middle of the pub.

This time, when Tina had proposed going for few drinks on the weekend, it was easier to agree. He didn’t remember when was the last time he had a proper meeting with Tina, where they both could just shit talked through the whole night. Life got fucking busy lately and since his own four walls weren’t so suffocating anymore, it was easier for Gavin to just stay inside.

“What about that one?” Chris said, pointing at the small round table with high chairs. “We should be able to fit in.”

Of course, the meeting transformed into a little party, because apparently, the more, the merrier. But it wasn’t that bad. At the end of the day, it was only the four of them. Gavin felt _really_ bad that Hank and Connor needed to work some extra on weekends to make their little vacation possible.

They sat down around the table and Gavin shook off his jacket. It was really fucking hot. It didn’t help that the whole pub was almost packed to the brim. Gavin understood that it was Saturday night, summer was almost there and people were fucking _thirsty_ , but damn, they deliberately chose less popular place to avoid crowds.

“Damn, you guys got lucky!” Tina said and slammed the first tray of shots in front of them. “This is your reward for finding a good spot.”

“Yeah, it’s a little snug, but we’ll manage,” Chris said with a smile, when Tina was lining all the shots.

Yeah, a little snug. Chris’ knee was digging into Gavin’s thigh and when he moved a little bit to the right, Tina’s hair were in his face and he didn’t even want to straighten his legs to collide with Nines’.

“I’ve got you thirium,” Tina pointed out to RK. “I asked them to pour it into little shots for solidarity.”

Nines gave her a little smile, before taking a small glass in his hand.

“As I cannot get intoxicated, I guess my solidarity would ended with this,” he answered and – was Gavin hearing things or did Nines just sounded a little disappointed that he cannot get drunk?

“Believe me, the happiness lasts only few hours and then you are dying the whole next day,” Gavin answered, before slightly tipping his little glass towards Tina and Chris.

“That sounds rather –“

“Stupid?” Gavin finished with a smirk and tipped his glass towards Nines. “Yeah, that’s what people do. Stupid things. Like this.”

Gavin downed his shot and with one swift move, grabbed another one.

“Gavin!”

But before Tina could stopped him, he tipped his head back, feeling the burning in his throat, his eyes not leaving Nines.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Tina said, punching him in the arm. “Do you want to get wasted in an hour?”

“Oh come one, T, you know it’s a tradition. You take first one for one leg and second one for another. Otherwise, you will be tripping the whole night.”

Chris laughed and moved to pick up one more shot from the table.

“You’ve heard the man, Tina,” Chris said with a big grin. “It’s a tradition.”

“You will get me in trouble,” Chen grumbled, but moved to grab her drink. “No more stunts like that.”

It was Gavin’s turn to laugh, when he saw his friends downing their drinks with a small frowns.

“I can’t promise you anything.”

“ – mean the promotion would be nice, but I see how hard you guys work, I don’t think I would be able to pull it off right now, especially since Damian.”

After the round of shots, which were gone way too soon, they decided to stick with beers. Gavin didn’t know when was the last time he drunk. It seemed that lately he’s been really fucking busy. Busy with work, busy with his cats trying to take over his bedroom, busy with whatever the fuck was going on with Nines. He used to pop few beer now and then, just to relax, but since android was always hanging around and shoving different teas in his hands, there was no use in drinking anything stronger. 

Somehow, he traded some cheap beer for a fancy, flavored teas. Gavin was getting fucking old.

“Damian is a little cutie, ha? And look at you and Maria! Damn, you guys look good together,” Tina said looking at the photos on Chris’ phone, before giving it back.

Then Tina’s smile became more twisted and Gavin knew her too well, to not know that she was up to some kind of shenanigans.

“Nines, you’re single, right?” Tina said, nudging android in the arm. “Maybe we can find you someone good in here. How about that one?”

Tina motioned with her head towards some blond girl standing at the bar. She was wearing a light summer dress and had a nice smile, Gavin guessed she could be cute for someone who was into it. And apparently someone was, because few seconds later, some guy hugged her from behind and kissed her on the cheek.

“Okay, maybe not that one,” Tina added with a little too loud laugh. God, four drinks Tina was such a fucking hopeless matchmaker. “But that one looks nice.”

This time it was someone behind Gavin’s back, so he turned his head in the direction Tina’s pointed. Some dark hair guy, around Chris’ age, way too polished to just get drunk at the bar, mostly playing with the straw rather than drinking. He wasn’t half bad, but there was something off about his face, like his eyes were just too big, his nose too straight, his eyes wrong shade of blue.

“Thank you officer Chen for your attempts, but I’ve already scan the whole place and there is only one person that has raised my interest.”

When Gavin turned back towards the table, Nines’ eyes were looking straight at him.

Looking at Nines was getting harder and harder with each day. After last weekend something shift between them, the gazes became longer, the smiles were softer and Gavin’s fucking heart wanted to crawl its way out of his ribcage.

And the fact that Nines looked at him right now, was because he probably was checking the guy behind him and when Gavin moved, RK’s eyes automatically switched to him. It didn’t mean anything.

But what if – ?

“What?!” Tina exclaimed so loud that Gavin was almost sure she would break all the glasses. “You can do that?! So if I tell you my preferences would you be able to locate that person in the pub?”

“Tina,” Gavin interfered, because it started to get out of hands. “Leave him alone. The guy came here to chill, not to hunt for your Miss Right.”

“I don’t mind, Detective,” Nines answered and the lights from the bar made his smile looked more eerie. “I guess, it could be my party trick.”

Gavin let out a small laugh, before cocking his brow and taking the sip of his beer.

“Impressive.”

What the fuck were they doing? Why just Gavin cannot shut the fuck up? Why, or why, he need to torture his own poor, gay heart?

“Look at you guys,” Chris said, motioning with his hand between Gavin and Nines. “You have some inside jokes!”

“Yeah, next thing we know, they would be taking a vacation together, “ Tina joked, before turning her whole attention towards Nines. “So! Back to me. I’m looking for a girl, dark hair would be great and – and big, dark eyes –

After listening to Tina’s fawning about her type countless of time, Gavin tuned down the rest of the conversation.

Was it really that weird that he and Nines were getting along? Of course, the beginning of their partnership was rocky as hell, Gavin was at RK’s throat more times than he could remember. But the fucker wasn’t innocent, he was saying things just to see how Gavin would react. He would bite back every time Gavin was trying to intimate him, he was so stubborn and smug and he was driving Reed crazy.

Now, after half a year, when Gavin was looking at his partner from across the table, he wouldn’t say that much have changed.

But, at the same time, everything was a little bit different.

“Officer Chen, it’s interesting that all the characteristic you’ve mentioned relate to physical appearance,” Nines pointed out with a little smile in his voice.

“Um, yeah, I‘m looking to get laid, not for a soulmate!” Tina laughed and took a big gulp of her beer.

This time, Gavin was the one who moved his eyes towards Nines. There was a tinny tiny twitch of RK’s eyes, but when he blinked, it was gone. Did he not approve of Tina’s approach? They’ve already talked about it, casual sex was something people do and Nines has never had a problem with that concept before.

But in the next second, his eyes caught Gavin’s and _oh –_

It wasn’t about sex. It was about soul –

Gavin couldn’t stand it any longer, he ducked his head and tried to burn the hole in the table with his gaze.

He was so, so fucked.

He needed to take a breath. It was getting quite late, Chris went home like an hour ago and now they were mostly sticking around for Tina. Gavin took a drag from his cigarette, before sitting down on the curb in front of the pub. He wasn’t even tipsy. He switched a while back to some nonalcoholic drinks, he barely felt the alcohol in his system. 

Gavin have done many stupid things in his life, but getting drunk today would be in his top five. There was too much at stake to fuck it all up.

When he caught the glimpse of black, polished shoes in the corner of his eyes, he smirked.

“How’s our Dancing queen?” he asked and flicked the ash from the cigarette.

“She’s doing exceptionally good. Her partner is not leaving her side.”

Gavin hummed in response. There was silence between them, not the awkward one, but still, the weird one. The one when you had too much to say and you are tiptoeing around the right words, but at the end, you decide to stay silent. Because you really, really, don’t want to fuck it up.

“I believe that officer Chen would like to invited her partner to her house,” Nines’ words broke the silent, after few minutes.

“Yeah, no shit, it’s the whole point,” Gavin answered and put down his cigarette. “You find that one special snowflake and you’re taking them home.”

He fished out his phone to see a message from Tina.

“Yep, our prima donna will be living soon. So no point in being here any longer,” Gavin stood up from the concrete and moved towards the entry. “I’ll check with her to see, if you didn’t match her with some psychopath.”

“I’ll call you a cab, Detective.”

Gavin stopped in his track and turned his head towards Nines. RK was standing with his hands in the pockets of his jeans, his shirt had few buttons undone, the fluorescent light from the bar making him even more unreal and untouchable and Gavin –

Gavin was gay as fuck.

“Oh, I’m taking you home with me, hotshot,” Gavin answered and took every ounce of satisfaction when, RK looked like he froze in the spot. “Need to bring some sacrifice for Satan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, they are feeling things...  
> Also, I would like to believe that Gavin at least had a lovely grandma. 
> 
> Głupek means stupid. The other word that Gavin tried to say is probably one of the most famous Polish swear words.


	7. You

_July 29 2039, Friday_

Officer Chen, once compared Gavin Reed to the ticking bomb. Every time he approached, the ticking could be heard, sometimes calm, sometimes loud, but you’d never could see the timer. No matter how familiar you were with the danger, you couldn’t possibly know when it would blow in your face.

Being close to Gavin was a constant hazard and Nines needed to admit, that he got a little too comfortable around the menace.

Gavin got hurt.

It wasn’t anything life threatening, but the blood oozing from his wound was soaking through his T-shirt and DPD windbreaker. There’s been a bloody trail leading straight to the steps of Nines’ apartment, Nines’ led constantly spinning, scanning Gavin’s life functions every second.

“Fucking hell,” Gavin growled, when he rolled inside the flat.

He went straight to the bathroom, the bloody smudge left on the door, before it closed in front of Nines’ face.

“Open the door,” Nines insisted, his fingers curling around the handle.

“Fuck off! Get the fuck away from me!”

It wasn’t life threatening injury. According to Reed’s medical record he’s seen worse and he was more than capable of handling the wound. Gavin was stable. All of the communications were popping in front of him and Nines knew, _of course_ , he knew all of that –

But then Gavin hissed and growled and –

“I’m coming in.”

“What the–“

Nines ripped the door off the hinges.

Gavin was standing in front of the mirror, his bloody clothes scatter on the floor, one of the towels pressed to his wound.

There was a pause in Nines’ step.

He shouldn’t have barged in.

Gavin was still fuming, the pain caused by the injury increased his stress level and Nines’ presence only made the matters worse. But when Gavin flinched a little and pressed the towel harder, Nines just moved.

He took one step forward and Gavin was ready to kick Nines out of his own bathroom.

So much will to fight in someone who was in so much pain. 

Nines grabbed another towel and carefully stepped around Gavin towards the sink. It remained him of maneuvering around the minefield, one carless move, one unsuitable word and Gavin would go off. He would throw his punches, with hurtful words rolling off his tongue and as much as Nines would like to believe that all the unpleasantness was caused by the pain and high stress level, he didn’t want Reed to go through more distress.

He exchanged his hand with a wet towel without a word. He didn’t want to get out and leave Reed alone, but he also didn’t want to push, when Gavin was on edge.

Reed’s eyes were moving between Nines’ hand and his face, his jaws tightening, his heart rate elevated and he opened his mouth to send Nines as far away as possible–

But –

Nothing came out. Gavin didn’t take the towel from Nines. He removed the bloody cloth from his wound and pushed it to the floor.

The cut was a long horizontal line on the left side, right below his ribs, spreading to the back, no internal organs were damaged, but the cut was 1/3 inch deep and still bleeding.

Nines took another step forward, enough to reach to Gavin, but not caging him. He applied more pressure to the wound, but from what he saw, the cut needed stitches. Gavin should have sat down, but any form of communication with Reed would ended up with pushing Nines away.

So he must have worked with whatever his partner was giving him, which wasn’t much.

Gavin leaned on the sink behind him, his head tipped back, but his eyes were carefully following Nines’ moves. After 2 minutes and 34 seconds, the bleeding stopped, but Nines didn’t feel any better about it. He wasn’t qualify to take care of human injuries, all the articles on the internet mentioned that Gavin needed to see a specialist if he wanted his wound to heal properly and to avoid a scar.

But it would not happened.

“I need to touch you to inspect the wound,” Nines said and waited for Gavin’s response. “I’m warning you, that my synthetic skin would retreat during contact.”

Nines couldn’t look Gavin in the eyes, but he knew that Reed was still watching his hands.

“Whatever.”

He couldn’t control it. The synthetic skin retreated in the moment his fingers merely brushed Gavin’s side, and Reed’s skin was tough and warm and for a moment, there was too many communications in Nines’ HUD to keep track of all of them.

Gavin was stable.

“The wound require medical attention.”

“Bullshit,” Gavin hissed, but there wasn’t much anger in his voice anymore. “You can’t even see the bones. Just slap some bandage on it and I’ll be fine.”

That man was impossible.

Nines scanned the wound one more time, just to check for any infections or more damages and it was wiser to leave the cut open, but he couldn’t let Gavin walk shirtless the whole time. So Nines pulled some first aid kit from the shelf, the one that Gavin kept all his toiletries, and started to dress the wound.

When Nines laid his hands on Gavin again, Reed started fidgeting. It was already challenging to deal with Gavin and his attitude, but now his partner was also making it hard to concentrate on the simple task.

“Detective – “ Nines started but Gavin interrupted him.

“Na – ah, you’ve already said it today, Nines” Reed said. “We’re not gonna go back.”

Nines let out a small sigh.

It was his mistake. When he saw the perp pointing a knife at Gavin, when he saw the tip of the blade sinking in human’s flesh, he simply reacted. The words rolled out of his tongue and his body moved to apprehend the criminal. It was an abrupt, reckless decision.

But it was also the first time, he said it out loud.

“Gavin.”

From his hunched positions, Nines couldn’t register Gavin’s reaction, but the small curve of Reed’s lips peeking in the corner of his vision was enough. He stopped wiggling around and Nines could safely place the bandage over the wound.

“There you go,” Gavin said, looking at the dressing. “It wasn’t so hard, ha?”

Nines didn’t press to ask if the detective meant calling him by his first name or tending to his wounds. Both activities left an imprint on his system, he needed to go into stasis and sort all of the errors and bugs out.

“So I guess, it’s not only business for you.”

Nines lifted his head to look at Gavin.

“What do you mean?”

Gavin’s hands went to grip the sink behind him and he pushed himself off the thing.

“With your whole “detective” shtick,” Gavin shrugged. “I just thought that it is just a professional relationship for you.”

That was correct. It _supposed to_ be a professional relationship. Nines always recognized the value of work ethic and his own efficiency was his top priority. The whole objective to get to know Gavin arose from Nines’ boredom and perceiving his partner as a challenge.

It all started with Detective Reed being his mission.

Detective Reed, who after their first interaction promised to “make Nines’ work a living hell,” who always get the dirt from his shoes on Nines’ desk, who made the same mistake in his reports over and over again, only to revel in Nines’ irritation.

But, when Nines watched the man in front of him, who looked at him with bright eyes and half smiles, who bled on his floor, who trusted Nines enough to let him see the glimpses of his life, it felt different.

Gavin was not a mission.

Gavin, who had the most compelling moral compass from all the people Nines knew, who always had a soft spot for dogs, despite having cats, who laughed in improper moments, who had so much to offer to this world, that sometimes Nines felt overwhelmed.

“I suppose that was my primary intention,” Nines started, before moving to collect Gavin’s dirty clothes from the floor. “But I admit that I failed that mission.”

His folder about Gavin was now filled with different information, ranging from more personal facts to small observations. However, it didn’t help much in predicting the outcome of Reed’s action. Getting closer to Gavin didn’t help in restricting Reed’s behavior to certain customs, quite the opposite, it opened more possibilities for different outcomes. Gavin was full of surprises, contradictions, unpredictable decisions. There was still so much to learn, but any sort of valuable information were buried so deep and it’s taken time to reach to them. It would take time to reach to Gavin. And Nines had all the time in the world.

So, no, it wasn’t any longer a business, an objective.

Getting to know Gavin was a personal want.

Gavin let out a small hum, which made Nines snapped out of his mussing.

“Must be hard for you to fail, Mr. Perfect,” Gavin said with a smirk, looking smug like he hasn’t just lost 837 millilitres of blood. “Need a new mission?”

“Other than keeping you alive?” Nines prompted and threw one of Reed’s spare clean t-shirt at him, to cover that self-satisfied smile. “Gavin.”

Handling Gavin’s physical wounds felt effortless compared to dealing with his emotional scars.

During next week, Gavin’s attitude suddenly changed.

His comments became more abrasive and vicious, his moves more chaotic and careless, his stress level was alarming, increased coffee consumption affected Reed’s sleep pattern. When their Friday’s shift ended and Gavin pushed his way past Nines without a word, he didn’t stop him.

Because there was not a single possible outcome that wouldn’t end up with massive blast.

He knew, that he was capable of pushing Gavin to the point of confessing the reason of his turmoil, but – It wasn’t the appropriate way to do this. Gavin would pushed and snarled and fought with all his power and in the end, Nines would get the confession, but he would lose all the progress they’ve made so far. They would be back to square one. To pushing each other to the point of breaking.

If he asked gently about the troubling matter, Nines wouldn’t accomplished anything. Gavin would be defensive, sending Nines to hell with few colorful insults and pushing him away.

Of course, the most common way of consoling a troubled person would be least effective with Gavin. Any form of physical contact would be met with aggression. Nines observed that a long time ago, that Gavin wasn’t opposed to physical contact, as long as he was the one, who initiated it first. On very rare occasions, he allowed other’s to touch him first.

At the end of the day, Nines stood in front of the precinct and looked at the Gavin’s hunched back disappearing in the crowd.

Even though Gavin was far away, Nines could still hear the ticking.

It’s been a challenging week. Nines tried his best to stir Gavin away from any troubles around the bullpen, he kept his mouth shut when one day Reed came back to work with bruised knuckles, he didn’t push when Gavin preferred to go home by himself. He decided to wait, he was patient.

However, it’s been 2 hours and 6 minutes, since Gavin disappeared, presumably in the gym, and he didn’t come back. Whatever penal exercises he decided to indulge himself in, they couldn’t possible last that long. Or if they did, Gavin would be passed out in the middle of the gym.

In that moment, Nines didn’t feel a lot of patience. He moved from his desk and scanned the area, looking for Gavin.

It wasn’t hard to find Reed. As long as he was still near the precinct, there was a limited number of places Gavin could go. When Nines stepped outside, he spotted Gavin few steps away, standing under the small roof, which shelter him from the rain. He was leaning on one of the walls, the small cup of coffee from the nearby bakery cradled in his hands as Reed observed the street in front of him. The intensity of the rain increased, creating a wall of water between them. Nines took a step.

“Jesus Christ,” Gavin scowled, when Nines wordlessly invited himself under the small roof. “Of course, you would fucking come here.”

Nines looked at Gavin, who adjusted his hood and pointedly turned away from the android. Gavin’s stress level was still alarming, his body tensed in the manner that meant he was bracing himself for a fight. Always ready to fight.

“Are you here to pacify me?” Gavin snarled, his voice loud and challenging. “Because I dare you to fucking try, you–“

“No,” Nines interrupted, before Gavin’s threats could escalate any further.

Nines wasn’t here to lecture Reed about his responsibilities or try to persuade him to change his behavior around the bullpen.

He only wanted to find Gavin. Safe.

And there he was, flesh and bones. Still unreachable.

Nines spent the last two weeks deconstructing every possible even that could trigger Gavin’s bad mood. As Reed effectively cut their contact to work interactions and nothing alarming had happened at work, Nines presumed that the cause of his distress must reside in personal matter. He tried consulting Officer Chen, but she only responded with brief: “The bomb is ticking loudly, better hide before he explodes.”

That, Nines was trying to avoid.

Gavin was holding the great amount of build up rage inside him and Nines could only imagine how painful it was to bear all of that for such a long time. He was aware that Gavin, like every human being, had past and experiences, which molded him into the person he was today and RK only brushed upon the lightest areas on Reed’s life. The knowledge about Gavin’s favourite cereal wouldn’t help him understand the depth of Reed’s struggles. Struggles, which Gavin wouldn’t talk about, but it didn’t mean they didn’t exist.

The idea that Gavin’s problems weren’t Nines concern was out of the question. At that point he was too invested in Gavin’s well being, all logic be damned, because he cared.

He cared deeply about Gavin.

But now the question was, how to prevent the explosion, when the bomb was so complicated?

He could prolong the time, stirring Gavin away of trouble as long as necessary, but it wouldn’t solve the problem. And Gavin deserved to live without the need to pick up pieces after every blast.

They stood under the rusty, tin roof, listening to the rain drumming over their heads and there couldn’t possibly be words that would capture whatever Nines wanted to express. But he decided to try, anyway.

“I believe,” Nines started, trying to pick the most suitable words. “That you are more than capable to handle whatever matter is occupying your mind, Gavin.”

Gavin turned towards him, his brows furrowed, jaw tensed. He watched him carefully, waiting for Nines next words, waiting for “but” or contradiction.

But RK only leaned on the opposite wall and waited. They weren’t in a rush, they could stay like that as long as Reed needed. Just as long as Gavin let Nines stay here with him.

RK knew that there was so much more he would like to say, but every word bore additional weight and that moment of mutual vulnerability was already overwhelming. The tension didn’t cease, the rain was drumming even louder and Nines felt the explosion coming.

But Gavin let out a long sigh, his shoulders relaxing for a moment, before changing his position.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Gavin asked and fixed RK with scrutinizing look. “Are you like one of those risk junkies? You’re fucking drawn to the biggest, most chaotic mess? You don’t fucking need to be here, Nines.”

He was aware that he shouldn’t be near Gavin in those stressful moment, if he valued his own safety. However, the thought that Gavin would deal with the outburst by himself was more disheartening than any damage Reed could possibly caused him.

“Perhaps, I’m drawn to chaos as much as chaos is drawn to me.”

Nines waited for Gavin’s reaction, for push, for the explosion. He didn’t feel like telling Gavin, that he’d came to fix the issue, because how could he, when he didn’t know the problem. He wasn’t there to tell Gavin that everything would be alright, because there was the great chance, that it wouldn’t be. He still believed that with time, Gavin would be able to handle the issue by himself, but simply watching Gavin struggle from afar was agonizing. He was here, because now, it was everything he could do for Gavin and for himself.

“You are so fucking weird, Nines,” Gavin finally responded with a shake of his head. “Just admit, that they pay you extra to deal with my shit.”

Reed’s smile was barely there, but his stress level was decreasing for the first time in two weeks and Nines couldn’t help but smile.

“Also, who the fuck are you, Connor?“ Reed said and took a sip of his lukewarm coffee. “Saying that cheesy “I believe in you” bullshit.”

“It’s actually a quote from your old Facebook wall.”

“Oh, fuck you, asshole.”

At the end of the day, Nines hasn’t learnt what triggered Gavin’s bad mood, he wasn’t able to defuse the bomb, the problem was still deeply rooted within Gavin, and the ticking was still somewhere in the back of his head.

But after their talk Reed’s mood was improving, they avoided the explosion and few days later Nines was back on the lumpy couch.

Nines learnt that some of the greatest decisions weren’t always the ones that you pondered over million times, trying to visual the most successful outcome. It weren’t the ones, you envisioned in very particular, ideal environment. The greatest decisions weren’t always triggered by catastrophic event, nearly deadly experience or heroic action.

Sometimes, you were simply sitting in the dim living room, trying to explain to one persistent detective that you couldn’t demolish one of the walls, not because Nines was a “pussy”, but because it was a load –bearing wall. You looked at the grown, competent man walking around his flat, knocking on different walls, shouting how it’s all bullshit and the normality and familiarity down upon you. And words slipped past your mouths before you could stop them.

“I want this. ”

Those mad ideas created in the heat of the moment, those challenging gazes, who made his system unstable, the unpredictability of the next move, impulsive, irrational decisions, the excitement of learning, the late night discussions, the view of the river from the small, bedroom window, those high – maintenance cats, the expressive gestures, the swearing, the heat of the skin under his fingers. The shifting of the balance. The chaos.

Nines wanted all of it and more for as long as possible. As long as it was with Gavin.

“Oh, so _now_ you want to take down the wall?” Gavin mocked, dragging Satan away from the windowsill. “What? It magically stopped being a bearing wall?”

Gavin looked unguarded and natural, in some old tank top and joggers, his unkempt hair swept back, bit of sauce from lunch in the left corner of his mouth, standing in the middle of the living room with wiggling Satan under his arm. He looked serene, with a bright eyes and slightly lifted chin in challenging manner, not knowing that Nines just upset the already fragile balance in their relationship.

The confession went right over Reed’s head, because the man was still stuck on the topic of those damn walls around them.

“I want,” Nines started one more time, but now words didn’t come as easily as the first time. “I want you, Gavin.”

In next second, Nines’ HUD was flooded with communications about the recklessness of his decisions, how his confession was far away from anything perfect. The setting of bleak living room couldn’t be less romantic, it hasn’t been longer than 92 hours since Gavin was battling with his problems, they didn’t even openly discuss the subject of romantic interests with each other, and Nines was familiar with over 200 000 words in English language but somehow decided to only say four.

The least Nines could do was to look Gavin in the eyes, when he’s said it.

Reed stopped abruptly, his hand uncurling around his cat, making him drop to the floor. His face was a pure shock, eyes wide, mouth slightly parted, but the surprise didn’t last long as Gavin’s brows furrowed, his eyes narrowed, clenched fists bawled at his side.

“What the fuck did you say?” Gavin hissed, taking few steps closer to Nines.

“You’ve heard me, Gavin,” Nines answered and he stood up from the couch. “Do you need me to repeat? I want – “

“Don’t! Don’t fucking repeat it!”

Something was definitely crumbling between them. From the tense stance, clenched fists and unreadable face, Nines could presume it was their relationship. The dangerous side of impulsive decisions was catching up with Nines, the previous jolt of excitement was suddenly replaced by regret. Making important decisions without knowing the outcome, how foolishly of him.

Gavin was still looking at him from the safe distance.

What else was to say about the concept that lived only for 16 seconds, between Nines’ “want” and Gavin’s “don’t”? Perhaps, it was meant to be over, before it’s even fully began.

Nines moved from his spot and was ready to walk out, before Gavin spoke again.

“What the fuck do you mean?”

It wasn’t anger in his voice, but irritation, impatience.

“I want to be a part of your life,” Nines admitted. “As someone more than I already am.”

Putting his thoughts into words seemed to be exceptionally hard, especially when the words were so profound. It felt selfish to burden Gavin with his own wants, especially since Nines might wanted more than Reed was willing to offer.

“You fucking listen to me,” Gavin began, suddenly standing right in front of Nines. “It’s not some kind of romantic bullshit, you saw on TV! I’m not gonna hold your hand or run after you to the fucking airport! I will tease you, mock you, I would make your life a fucking hell!”

“I’ve seen your hell, Gavin,” Nines answered with a smirk. “It’s quite pleasant.”

“You are laughing now, but you will regret this,” Gavin hissed, jabbing his finger in Nines’ chest. His voice was frantic and loud, but it still wasn’t anger that control Reed. It was something entirely different, but Nines couldn’t place the emotion. “I saw it before, Nines, and it’s always the same. You think you want some challenge, but guess what? Sometimes it’s fucking boring! Sometimes it’s just fucking too much! Most of the time I don’t fucking know what I’m gonna do! You don’t want me, Nines. You don’t want any of… that!”

Nines was going over Gavin’s words, how Reed’s worries relate to his person, how Nines would become disappointed or bored or simply discouraged with time, but what struck him the most, was the lack of clear rejection of Nines’ feelings.

“Let me rephrase myself,” Nines started and gently jabbed his own finger into Gavin’s chest. “I’ve known you for 237 days, during that time, you’ve promised to mutilate me 245 times, you’ve told me to “fuck myself” 599 times, you’ve made me broke 121 rules, you’ve spilled 31 drinks on me, I’ve learnt 177 different things that irritate you, I’ve listened to you talk about Supernatural for 905 hours, I’ve helped you win 38 fights, I’ve saw you smile 8748 times, you’ve made my system unstable 19256 times. I’ve gathered 198 457 899 information about you, Gavin Reed. I know what I want.”

Nines took his hand away and locked eyes with Gavin.

“What do _you_ want to do with all of this?”

With us, went unsaid.

Reed didn’t avert his eyes, the challenging gleam was still there, his chin lifted higher than necessary. He could still fight Nines if he wanted, he could reject his feelings, but at least Nines hoped he wouldn’t belittle his intensions. Perhaps, Gavin didn’t see it the same way, perhaps the timing, the place, the aura weren’t right. Perhaps, Nines would need to try again.

But Gavin took a step closer, a quick “fuck” slipped past his lips and he bumped his forehead on Nines’ shoulder.

“What are the chances we’re gonna fuck this all up?” Gavin murmured in Nines’ shirt.

“I don’t know, it’s hard to tell with you,” RK answered with a smile and tipped his head to rest on top of Gavin’s. “But I like that about you.”

“Oh, shut the fuck up,” Reed started laughing and punched Nines in the arm. “God, you’re hopeless.”

Nines looked how Gavin moved past him, still laughing to himself and he couldn’t help but smile. It wasn’t a “yes”, it wasn’t even a clear declaration of any stronger feelings, but it was something they both could work on. Whatever it was.

When Gavin threw himself on the couch and told Nines to stop creeping in the corner, RK believed that not much has changed between them. Reed was still loud, talking over dialogues in the movie, taking more space on the couch than necessary. Except, now, when Nines caught him staring, Gavin wouldn’t try to hide his smile.

The next two days were mostly consumed by work. The new case was compelling, but complicated and by the end of Friday, they’ve finally got a solid lead. Nines stayed at Gavin’s apartment over the weekend, the whole Saturday spent on researching their prime suspect, Reed falling in and out of sleep on the couch the whole time. However, after rather lazy Sunday, Gavin walked into his bedroom, telling Nines that he was not one of those girls, who invited guys to bed on a first date, but if RK managed to push the cats off the bed, the side was his.

Apparently, the cats weren’t the biggest challenge, but Gavin, who constantly was twisting the sheets and uncovering Nines’ feet the whole night. It didn’t necessary bother him, but it simply felt… wrong.

However now, when Nines was looking at Gavin slowly waking up, his hair ruffled, his eyes not fully opened as he reached to turn off his alarm clock, every little pieces looked just right. Then Reed looked over his shoulder and caught Nines’ eyes.

“Oh fuck, you’re still here?” Gavin’s voice was hoarse from sleep and he slowly turned to his back.

“I was tempted to leave after you started snoring.”

“Fuck off, I don’t snore.”

After Gavin switched his position, they laid really close to each other. If Nines moved his hand 4 mm to the left, he could touch Gavin’s shoulder. 

“Oh don’t worry, I thought you might say that, so I recorded it,” Nines teased and when Gavin twitched, he bumped into his hand. His skin was warm and rough and Gavin didn’t move away. “You also mumble in your sleep, but that is another story.”

“Yeah? And you look fucking dead. Could you at least lay on your side and not be in a mummy position?”

Nines let out a small laugh, before pushing the covers. He could stay like that, laying next to Gavin and banter about their sleeping differences, but they needed to go to work.

“I’ll consider it,” Nines answered and stood up from the bed. “Your coffee is waiting on the table.”

“Thank fuck for that,” Gavin stretched, his joints cracking, before he raised his head to peek at the nightstand. “What the – “

“No, not that table, Gavin,” Nines said with a smile, already moving to the door. “The kitchen table.”

“Oh, you motherfucker!”

Nines heard Gavin falling down on the pillow one last time, before following after the android 3 minutes later.

Even getting ready to work didn’t differ much from their usual routine. When Gavin’s getting ready, Nines caught up on the current news, fed the cats and hurried them to the door. Except today, after Nines gave one last look around the living room and turned towards the door, Gavin grabbed his arm and RK instinctively faced Reed, and then he had only 2 seconds to understand the situation and he closed his eyes, before –

Before Gavin kissed him.

With a little too much force at the beginning, as expecting Nines to draw back. But RK leaned in, pushing all the communications and alerts aside, concentrating only on Gavin, how his breach hitched for a moment, how all of his kisses had so much force in them, like it could be their last, how his hand was still squeezing it arm.

How incredible it felt to be kissed by Gavin Reed, in the dim corridor at 7:11 am.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's how the story ends.It's been a journey.  
> Could it be more? Probably. Did I want to add more? Not really.
> 
> Thank you so much for your amazing comments and support. It brings me so much joy to hear that someone likes whatever I managed to scribble.


End file.
